:: Radical Urbana ::

MassRaqs 2011 coming up!

2011-04-22T16:27:00.004-04:00

MassRaqs 2010 was an amazing success!
Enlightening Classes, Enriching Conversations, Unforgettable Performances.

Here's a Review of the 2010 MassRaqs Gala Show in Belly Dance New England -
http://bit.ly/e5c72x

SOON!
Details for MassRaqs 2011 at www.massraqs.com

Here's a few Images from MassRaqs 2010 by Heather Emerson of Dreamer's Realm Photography:

BELLY BEAT OF BOSTON DURING FRIDAY SHOWCASE:

PANEL ON NEW ENGLAND BELLY DANCE HISTORY.
Below are the "Azizza!" Filmakers: DeAnna Putnam and Amy Smith. Presenter Shadia Thome and Host / Moderator Meiver.

SOME OF THE MASSRAQS 2010 PARTICIPANTS.
After One of Bozenka's Dance Workshops.

THE AMAZING PHAEDRA OF BOSTON DURING HER GALA SHOW PERFORMANCE.

More Pictures in Our Flick Page - See Badge On the Right - .

Thanks to All who Made it Possible.
See You Again Soon in 2011!!

MassRaqs 2010!

2010-05-13T18:16:00.002-04:00

MassRaqs-Flyer-Back
Originally uploaded by Meiver

MassRaqs 2010

Details at www.massraqs.com

Sign up today!!

Stop SB 1070!!!

2010-04-27T15:27:00.006-04:00

¡Alto Arizona! is a response to Arizona Senate Bill 1070.

We are calling on Arizona governor Jan Brewer to veto SB 1070.

Arizona is on the verge of enacting the most anti-immigrant legislation the country has seen in a generation. This is a bill which apparently mandates racial profiling. SB 1070 is quite literally intended to terrorize immigrant families.

We are hopeful Governor Brewer will consult with her legal counsel, issue a veto, and spare Arizona the expense of defending an unconstitutional, unwise, and odious bill in federal courts. But we will not rely solely on hope. We urge all opponents of this bill to TAKE ACTION and call, fax, and/or send an email to AZ Governor Brewer to let her know that we do not stand by a bill that threatens to terrorize, criminalize and profile non-white residents of Arizona.

Please forward the information on to your friends, family, co-workers and networks to speak up against SB 1070.

Use your online networks, like email, IM, Blogs, Facebook and Twitter to spread the word online.
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspapers about your opinion of Immigration Reform and SB 1070.
Take action online and offline. Become an active participant in the movement!

---------------------------------

Join the campaign to stop the legalization of hate and racial profiling in the US!
For more details on how you can contribute please visit http://altoarizona.com
Artwork by Joel "rage.one" Garcia.
All Information taken from the AltoArizona Website.

Arundhati Roy in Boston! (April 2010)

2010-03-23T15:07:00.004-04:00

1. At Harvard

Thursday, April 1, 2010 (5-7pm)
Co-sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School, the Humanities Center,
Harvard Center for the Environment and the South Asia Initiative
Can we Leave the Bauxite in the Mountain? Field Notes on Democracy
Arundhati Roy, Author of The God of Small Things (1997)
Commentator: Homi Bhabha, Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities
Moderated by: Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard Kennedy School
Venue:
Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sainit/events.htm

2. At MIT

Democracy's Endgame?

A Conversation with Arundhati Roy
and Noam Chomsky

Friday, April 2
3:30pm-5:00pm
26-100

THERE ARE NO LONGER ANY TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR THIS EVENT. THERE WILL, HOWEVER, BE VIDEO-OVERFLOW ROOMS AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS:
34-101
54-100
2-105
4-237
32-144

THE PROGRAM WILL ALSO BE STREAMED LIVE AND ARCHIVED AT THIS SITE:

http://web.mit.edu/tac/upcoming/index.html#endgame

NO ONE WILL BE ADMITTED TO THE MAIN LECTURE HALL WITHOUT A TICKET.

Leonardo Receiving Award

2010-02-08T18:32:00.001-05:00

Leonardo Receiving Award
Originally uploaded by Meiver

Photo Credit:
(cc) BY NC SA, Rodrigo SEPÚLVEDA SCHULZ

www.netexplorateur.org/

French Senate
Paris, 2010

:-D

"Haiti: Responding to the Situation" (INCITE!)

2010-01-18T01:43:00.005-05:00

Re- posting here this important strategy building document/call to action. RU
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Haiti: Responding to the Situation"

Statement by The Women's Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI), New Orleans
and
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence

January 17, 2010

It has been nearly a week since we all learned of the devastating situation unfolding in Haiti, as thousands struggle to survive and await rescue and humanitarian assistance. INCITE! organizers and human rights activists are mobilizing donations, organizing volunteer relief efforts, and collecting supplies to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Haiti.

As these efforts are underway, we recommend that we also pause and ask the question: How can we intentionally support the long term sustainability and self determination of the Haitian people? When crises of this magnitude occur, we all understandably want to act quickly, but we must also figure out how to act thoughtfully in our efforts to develop a comprehensive, sustainable, and accountable transnational radical feminist response.

The event of an earthquake of this magnitude is catastrophic for any place.. But in Haiti, it also exacerbates decades of poverty, aid dependency, military dictatorship, unsustainable development, invasions, neoliberal structural adjustment policies, corruption, and many other intersecting forms of violence. These political realities increase the multiple and complex forms of marginalization and social vulnerability women and their families will continue to face in the days, months, and years to come.

We have been in communication with Zeina Zaatari and Erika Rosas from Global Fund for Women. Their contact from the Dominican Republic, Sergia Galvan, who is currently in Port-au-Prince, reported on Friday that the situation is catastrophic and, at that point, there was no infrastructure by which humanitarian aid could be distributed.

Right now, there are many people, organizations, and governmental agencies mobilized to provide immediate aid relief and rescue operations in Haiti. However, there tends to be more readiness to donate supplies and money in the "immediate" time when things are very chaotic and before we know what the conditions are on the ground and have identified the long-term re-development needs as articulated by those most impacted. The long-term vision is critical because, when the dust settles and the big international relief organizations have left, people’s lives will still be devastated, and the need to rebuild will still be there.

We are researching if and how we can develop an intentional political relationship with local women so we can help mobilize the INCITE! network to support just and sustainable development of a sovereign Haiti, both during the interim and the long term recovery process.

As many of us work to figure out appropriate strategies to support the people of Haiti, it’s important to note that the people most vulnerable--namely, women, LGBT folks, people with disabilities, incarcerated people, children, and elders--can experience a slower unfolding of specific crises that are consequences of the original disaster and the social conditions that preceded the disaster.

For example, women experience the most negative consequences of catastrophic events, particularly with regards to higher rates of injury and death, displacement, unemployment, increased incidents of HIV rates, sexual and domestic violence, increased poverty, and the disproportionate responsibility for caring for others. This is especially true for women marginalized by race, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, health, ability, age, housing, and legal status. Additionally, in times of crises and environmental emergencies, poor and marginalized women, who are least responsible for the horrific conditions in which they live, are often blamed for their poverty and become subjected to regulatory population control policies through family planning, poverty reduction, and so-called environmental protection programs.

So, given what we have learned from Hurricane Katrina and the disasters of war, occupation, neoliberal economic dominance, and neglect that continue to plague and pathologize many of our families and friends internationally, we would like to use this time to organize an effective and accountable response during this interim phase of the crisis. Right now, we are exploring if we can activate the following plan:

* Identify a contact with at least one specific local women's organization/network in Haiti
* Help mobilize the INCITE! network to organize a response and provide specific resources identified by women in Haiti
* Work through INCITE! to sustain a productive and intentional transnational relationship with women in Haiti - this would be our long term solidarity work

We are talking with Zeina and Erika from Global Fund for Women to learn the landscape of women's organizing in Haiti, how their local partners are doing at this point, and if/how we can work with local women directly. We appreciate any feedback and ideas about this process, please respond to the list or at info@whji.org and incite.natl@gmail.com.

In the meantime, we urge INCITE! members/chapters/affiliates and the broader social justice community to:

EDUCATE YOURSELF & YOUR COMMUNITY!

* Research Haiti’s amazing history of resistance, resiliency, and self-determination
* Educate your community on the colonial history of deliberate impoverishment, control, debt, dependency, and neglect in Haiti
* Educate yourself and your community on the intersections of gender, violence, and disaster vulnerabilities
* Examine how the crises of disasters and gender-based violence are connected to the social, political, environmental, and economic issues you may work on
* Analyze how the violence of disasters and colonial legacies (and realities) undermines the sovereignty and self-determination of a people
* Identify patterns of how women, LGBT people, and people with disabilities are particularly impacted by disaster and conflict situations in, for example, Haiti, New Orleans, Palestine, Afghanistan, the Congo, the U.S./Mexico border, Native reservations

ORGANIZE!

* Convene organizing teach-ins on the history of Haiti, its historical connection to New Orleans, and the role the U.S. government has played in the underdevelopment of Haiti through invasion, occupation, and neoliberal supported policies
* Reach out to Haitian immigrants and Haitian-Americans in your community who may need support
* Support progressive democratic and human rights movements in Haiti and campaigns calling for debt cancelation and those to eliminate foreign aid restrictions that privilege US based contractors over Haitian labor
* Support the capacity of the Haitian government to rebuild its institutional and physical infrastructure and provide sustainable and equitable public and relief services to it’s own people free of neoliberal mandates
* Ensure that gendered perspectives are mainstreamed within humanitarian programs and long term recovery, both in recognizing the leadership roles and facilities of women and other marginalized communities to guide these processes and the specific vulnerabilities of marginalized communities in times of crisis and national emergency
* Mobilize women of color & queer/LGBT people of color in your community to develop and share organizing strategies to address crises like these both abroad and here at home
* Share organizing models and build skills to strengthen our grassroots organizing
* Connect online using:

o the incitechapters listserv
o the INCITE! facebook page: http://tiny.cc/incitefacebook
o Stay tuned for other online tools...

DONATE!

* The Global Fund For Women currently funds and partners with five Haitian women's organizations. The list of these organizations is below. GFW has a crisis fund they've set up to support their local partners. Contributions to GFW’s Crisis Fund will be directed to the re-building of women-based organizations and their communities after the disaster to ensure long-term equitable and sustainable development.
* If you would like to contribute to GFW, you can do so here: https://www.globalfundforwomen.org/donations/crisis-fund.php
* GFW Haiti Solidarity Statement is here: http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/cms/campaigns/campaigns/solidarity-with-our-sisters-in-haiti.html

Other groups to donate include:...

* Partners in Health: http://www.pih.org/inforesources/news/Haiti_Earthquake.html
* Partners in Health’s Sister Organization in Haiti – Zanmi Lasant Clinic: http://www.pih.org/where/Haiti/Haiti.html
* Dwa Fanm (meaning "Women's Rights" in Creole): http://www.dwafanm.org/
* The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC): http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/takeaction/globalactionalerts/1074.html

In Solidarity,

Women's Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI), New Orleans
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence

List of GFW Partners:

* Fondation TOYA [TOYA Foundation], Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Fondation TOYA works to raise the standard of living throughout the slum area of Cité Soleil through the empowerment of young women in the community. Members promote women’s entrepreneurship through a micro-finance structure that facilitates access to credit for women in the informal sector. By focusing on vulnerable young women who are unemployed and/or are heads of households, Toya is ensuring that more Haitian women will be financially independent, have access to healthcare and in control of their destinies.
* Association Femmes Soleil D’Haiti [Sun Women’s Association of Haiti], Cap-Haitien, Haiti: AFASDA was formed after the three-year coup in Haiti (1991-1994), because as the group states, “after the bloody coup…it was repression. No one could move. It was said that women couldn’t remain with their arms crossed. It was necessary to do something. We began with a little seed of reflection and that’s what became AFASDA.” AFASDA advances women’s rights by organizing campaigns for potable water and creating educational opportunities for street children and rural women.
* Organisation Femmes Victimes de Solino [Organization of Women Victims of Solino] (OFVS), Solino: OFVS works with women of the Solino slum who have been victims of violence. Because of social unrest and the proliferation of armed gangs, many women are unable to earn a living.. The majority of the group’s members are single mothers, 90 percent of them affected by violence.. OFSV notes, “The majority of the women have lost all their business activities, and were forced to pay a ransom daily to the heads of gangs that took over the area so as not to be attacked again…the women have been victims of theft, burglary, and rape.” OFVS provides counseling to violence survivors, financial aid to restart businesses, and legal aid to seek redress for the crimes committed against them.
* Kodinasyon Solidarité Fanm Djanm Sid, KOSOFADS [Dynamic Women of the South Solidarity Network] (KOSOFADS) Les Cayes, Haiti: KOSOFADS promotes women's economic independence, access to health care, and the eradication of domestic violence. The association brings poor women together in workshops, during which participants are encouraged to discuss women’s rights violations and devise strategies to resolve the abuse. KOSOFADS also produces radio and television programs that focus on women’s rights issues.
* Mouvman Peyizan Papay/Fanm MPP (Women of the Peasant Movement of Papay), Pètion Ville, Haiti: Emerging from the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP), Fanm MPP was created in 1980 to "concentrate on understanding women's unique development needs, advancing women's rights and empowering women to participate in their own development." One of the groups current projects is "Engaging Women in Holistic Health and Environmental Protection" project where women are taught to install family and community composting latrines, family cisterns so families for clean water for household use as well as plant fruits and vegetables for their families.

Women's Health & Justice Initiative
P.O. BOX 51325
New Orleans, LA 70151
504-524-8626
www.whji.org

Invitation to a Women of Color-Led Discussion

2009-06-11T12:06:00.001-04:00

“How do poverty and economic inequality relate to race and gender?”
A discussion with Becca Loya.

You may have heard people say that racism doesn't exist anymore, or blame people of color for their over representation in poverty (“we can all achieve based on our effort/ hard work”; “we should pull ourselves by our own bootstraps” etc)… You may know that these things aren't true but have trouble finding the words to explain why.

Join us for a discussion of how the history and policies around wealth and property ownership have created tremendous racial and gender inequality and continue to impede progress toward equality. What is wealth? What are other ways to think about privilege and wealth that we don’t commonly notice? What is the relationship between individual achievement and governmental policy?

Becca Loya will share works by Thomas Shapiro and Melvin Oliver, who documented the black-white racial wealth gap. In addition, Becca’s analysis will help us understand how race, gender and violence intersect to create particularly adverse conditions for women of color.

This empowering discussion will help us understand how and why poverty and economic inequality are (still today!) racialized and gendered.
--
Becca Loya is a PhD Student at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Her work within the Assets & Inequalities Concentration, aims to explore the gendered components of racialized economic inequality.

Next Wednesday June 17th, 7:00pm
Cambridge Women’s Center - 46 Pleasant St. Cambridge, MA 02139
For Driving /Walking Directions and Parking Info Please Visit:
http://www.cambridgewomenscenter.org/contactus.html
**this is a women-only event, trans-inclusive**
**please invite other women!**
**child-care available**
**all ages – bring your mothers / daughters - youth are welcomed!**
**please contact mee at arabiyya [no spam] at gmail, if you need wheelchair access**

Malcolm X on Zionism & Other stuff...

2009-01-10T16:57:00.005-05:00

During the too many days now, of Zionist terror and murder in Gaza I have received so many different emails with calls for boycotting Israel, with updates about the situation there, with analysis, with history. It is horrible and painful to witness repeated injustice from afar, to witness the impunity, the silence of all powerful governments - to see once again that the "international community" is no community at all. It feels so crazy that for so many of us our lives continue with barely any changes while entire families are erased from the globe. If this is not genocide, I don't know what is.

This situation has forced conversations about Israel/Palestine, in some circles - not enough. I've learned so much in this dialog, including the fact that almost all of the "knowledge" created surrounding Israel, in the minds of so many people I know - is completely false. This has to be one of the best examples of Foucault-like applications of 'power is the ability to create "knowledge"' that have ever existed. So many people forced to live under the Western sphere of influence - have been made to think that Arabs and Jews have been fighting "forever;" that this is a conflict thousands of years old, and that Israelis are somehow "right". I have asked friends 'why', and they can't explain it - they just "know" it.

A few of the things I have received have been really useful in starting up dialog. I want to re-post them here - just to make them available once again.. because they need to be read and re-read.

* - Malcolm X on Zionism (x-posted below)

* - "What you don't know about Gaza" by Rashid Khalidi (NYT)
Read here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html
"NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong..."

* - US Marine condemning the actions of the Israeli military:
Read here: http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2009/01/08/opinion/08kristof.html?permid=141#comment141
(specially useful when discussing the current war crimes with conservatives and military folks)

Excerpt:
"I recently retired from the US Marine Corps, but I saw service in Iraq. I do know something of military matters that are relevant to the situation now in Gaza.

I am dismayed by the rhetoric from US politicians and pundits to the effect that "if the US were under rocket attack from Mexico or Canada, we would respond like the Israelis". This a gross insult to US servicemen; I can assure you that we would NOT respond like the Israelis. In fact, US armed forces and adjunct civilians are under attack constantly in Iraq and Afghanistan by people who are much better armed, much better trained and far deadlier than Hamas (I'll ignore for now that the politicians seem to be oblivious to this fact). Israel has indeed taken a small number of casualties from Hamas rocket fire (about 20 killed since 2001), but we have taken thousands of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, including many civilian personnel. Hundreds of American casualties have occurred due to indirect fire, often from mortars. This is particularly true in or near the Green Zone in Baghdad. This fire often originates from densely populated urban areas.

Americans do not, I repeat DO NOT, respond to that fire indiscriminately. When I say 'indiscriminately', I mean that even if we can precisely identify the source of the fire (which can be very difficult), we do not respond if we know we will cause civilian casualties."

Read here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html

* - Naomi Klein on why to Boycott Israel NOW: http://www.alternet.org/story/118332/

* - "Israel Has No Intention of Granting a Palestinian State" by Jennifer Loewenstein (x-posted below)

* - Websites:
http://becausewestillarehere.wordpress.com/
Free Palestine Alliance Statements posted here: http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8869

* Awesome / short / video from the London protest last Saturday:
George Galloway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFzPm2GWtLA

-----------------

Zionist Logic -- Malcolm X on Zionism
Malcolm X (Omowale Malcolm X Shabazz) Taken from The Egyptian Gazette -- Sept. 17, 1964

The Zionist armies that now occupy Palestine claim their ancient Jewish prophets predicted that in the "last days of this world" their own God would raise them up a "messiah" who would lead them to their promised land, and they would set up their own "divine" government in this newly-gained land, this "divine" government would enable them to "rule all other nations with a rod of iron."

If the Israeli Zionists believe their present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of predictions made by their Jewish prophets, then they also religiously believe that Israel must fulfill its "divine" mission to rule all other nations with a rod of irons, which only means a different form of iron-like rule, more firmly entrenched even, than that of the former European Colonial Powers.

These Israeli Zionists religiously believe their Jewish God has chosen them to replace the outdated European colonialism with a new form of colonialism, so well disguised that it will enable them to deceive the African masses into submitting willingly to their "divine" authority and guidance, without the African masses being aware that they are still colonized.

CAMOUFLAGE

The Israeli Zionists are convinced they have successfully camouflaged their new kind of colonialism. Their colonialism appears to be more "benevolent," more "philanthropic," a system with which they rule simply by getting their potential victims to accept their friendly offers of economic "aid," and other tempting gifts, that they dangle in front of the newly-independent African nations, whose economies are experiencing great difficulties. During the 19th century, when the masses here in Africa were largely illiterate it was easy for European imperialists to rule them with "force and fear," but in this present era of enlightenment the African masses are
awakening, and it is impossible to hold them in check now with the antiquated methods of the 19th century.

The imperialists, therefore, have been compelled to devise new methods. Since they can no longer force or frighten the masses into submission, they must devise modern methods that will enable them to manouvre the African masses into willing submission.

The modern 20th century weapon of neo-imperialism is "dollarism." The Zionists have mastered the science of dollarism: the ability to come posing as a friend and benefactor, bearing gifts and all other forms of economic aid and offers of technical assistance. Thus, the power and influence of Zionist Israel in many of the newly "independent" African nations has fast-become even more unshakeable than that of the 18th century European colonialists... and this new kind of Zionist colonialism differs only in form and method, but never in motive or objective.

At the close of the 19th century when European imperialists wisely foresaw that the awakening masses of Africa would not submit to their old method of ruling through force and fears, these ever-scheming imperialists had to create a "new weapon," and to find a "new base" for that weapon.

DOLLARISM

The number one weapon of 20th century imperialism is zionist dollarism, and one of the main bases for this weapon is Zionist Israel. The ever-scheming European imperialists wisely placed Israel where she could geographically divide the Arab world, infiltrate and sow the seed of dissension among African leaders and also divide the Africans against the Asians.

Zionist Israel's occupation of Arab Palestine has forced the Arab world to waste billions of precious dollars on armaments, making it impossible for these newly independent Arab nations to concentrate on strengthening the economies of their countries and elevate the living standard of their people.

And the continued low standard of living in the Arab world has been skillfully used by the Zionist propagandists to make it appear to the Africans that the Arab leaders are not intellectually or technically qualified to lift the living standard of their people ... thus, indirectly "enducing" Africans to turn away from the Arabs and towards the Israelis for teachers and technical assistance.

"They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they."

The imperialists always make themselves look good, but it is only because they are competing against economically crippled newly independent countries whose economies are actually crippled by the Zionist-capitalist conspiracy. They can't stand against fair competition, thus they dread Gamal Abdul Nasser's call for African-Arab Unity under Socialism.

MESSIAH?

If the "religious" claim of the Zionists is true that they were to be led to the promised land by their messiah, and Israel's present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of that prophesy: where is their messiah whom their prophets said would get the credit for leading them there? It was Ralph Bunche who "negotiated" the Zionists into possession of Occupied Palestine! Is Ralph Bunche the messiah of Zionism? If Ralph Bunche is not their messiah, and their messsiah has not yet come, then what are they doing in Palestine ahead of their messiah?

Did the Zionists have the legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes and seize all Arab property for themselves just based on the "religious" claim that their forefathers lived there thousands of years ago? Only a thousand years ago the Moors lived in Spain. Would this give the Moors of today the legal and moral right to invade the Iberian Peninsula, drive out its Spanish citizens, and then set up a new Moroccan nation ... where Spain used to be, as the European zionists have done to our Arab brothers and sisters in Palestine?...

In short the Zionist argument to justify Israel's present occupation of Arab Palestine has no intelligent or legal basis in history ... not even in their own religion. Where is their Messiah?

Source: http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/gen_zion.htm

=================================================

Israel Has No Intention of Granting a Palestinian State
If Hamas Did Not Exist

By JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN

January 02, 2009 "Counterpunch" - -Let us get one thing perfectly straight. If the wholesale mutilation and degradation of the Gaza Strip is going to continue; if Israel's will is at one with that of the United States; if the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and all the international legal agencies and organizations spread across the globe are going to continue to sit by like hollow mannequins doing nothing but making repeated "calls" for a "ceasefire" on "both sides"; if the cowardly, obsequious and supine Arab States are going to stand by watching their brethren get slaughtered by the hour while the world's bullying Superpower eyes them threateningly from Washington lest they say something a little to their disliking; then let us at least tell the truth why this hell on earth is taking place.

The state terror unleashed from the skies and on the ground against the Gaza Strip as we speak has nothing to do with Hamas. It has nothing to do with "Terror". It has nothing to do with the long-term "security" of the Jewish State or with Hizbullah or Syria or Iran except insofar as it is aggravating the conditions that have led up to this crisis today. It has nothing to do with some conjured-up "war" – a cynical and overused euphemism that amounts to little more the wholesale enslavement of any nation that dares claim its sovereign rights; that dares assert that its resources are its own; that doesn't want one of the Empire's obscene military bases sitting on its cherished land.

This crisis has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, justice or peace. It is not about Mahmoud Zahhar or Khalid Mash'al or Ismail Haniyeh. It is not about Hassan Nasrallah or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These are all circumstantial players who have gained a role in the current tempest only now that the situation has been allowed for 61 years to develop into the catastrophe that it is today. The Islamist factor has colored and will continue to color the atmosphere of the crisis; it has enlisted the current leaders and mobilized wide sectors of the world's population. The primary symbols today are Islamic – the mosques, the Qur'an, the references to the Prophet Muhammad and to Jihad. But these symbols could disappear and the impasse would continue.

There was a time when Fatah and the PFLP held the day; when few Palestinians wanted anything to do with Islamist policies and politics. Such politics have nothing to do with primitive rockets being fired over the border, or smuggling tunnels and black-market weapons; just as Arafat's Fatah had little to do with stones and suicide bombings. The associations are coincidental; the creations of a given political environment. They are the result of something entirely different than what the lying politicians and their analysts are telling you. They have become part of the landscape of human events in the modern Middle East today; but incidentals wholly as lethal, or as recalcitrant, deadly, angry or incorrigible could just as soon have been in their places.

Strip away the clichés and the vacuous newspeak blaring out across the servile media and its pathetic corps of voluntary state servants in the Western world and what you will find is the naked desire for hegemony; for power over the weak and dominion over the world's wealth. Worse yet you will find that the selfishness, the hatred and indifference, the racism and bigotry, the egotism and hedonism that we try so hard to cover up with our sophisticated jargon, our refined academic theories and models actually help to guide our basest and ugliest desires. The callousness with which we in indulge in them all are endemic to our very culture; thriving here like flies on a corpse.

Strip away the current symbols and language of the victims of our selfish and devastating whims and you will find the simple, impassioned and unaffected cries of the downtrodden; of the 'wretched of the earth' begging you to cease your cold aggression against their children and their homes; their families and their villages; begging you to leave them alone to have their fish and their bread, their oranges, their olives and their thyme; asking you first politely and then with increasing disbelief why you cannot let them live undisturbed on the land of their ancestors; unexploited, free of the fear of expulsion; of ravishment and devastation; free of permits and roadblocks and checkpoints and crossings; of monstrous concrete walls, guard towers, concrete bunkers, and barbed wire; of tanks and prisons and torture and death. Why is life without these policies and instruments of hell impossible?

The answer is because Israel has no intention of allowing a viable, sovereign Palestinian state on its borders. It had no intention of allowing it in 1948 when it grabbed 24 per cent more land than what it was allotted legally, if unfairly, by UN Resolution 181. It had no intention of allowing it throughout the massacres and ploys of the 1950s. It had no intention of allowing two states when it conquered the remaining 22 per cent of historic Palestine in 1967 and reinterpreted UN Security Council Resolution 248 to its own liking despite the overwhelming international consensus stating that Israel would receive full international recognition within secure and recognized borders if it withdrew from the lands it had only recently occupied.

It had no intention of acknowledging Palestinian national rights at the United Nations in 1974, when –alone with the United States—it voted against a two-state solution. It had no intention of allowing a comprehensive peace settlement when Egypt stood ready to deliver but received, and obediently accepted, a separate peace exclusive of the rights of Palestinians and the remaining peoples of the region. It had no intention of working toward a just two-state solution in 1978 or 1982 when it invaded, fire-bombed, blasted and bulldozed Beirut so that it might annex the West Bank without hassle. It had no intention of granting a Palestinian state in 1987 when the first Intifada spread across occupied Palestine, into the Diaspora and the into the spirits of the global dispossessed, or when Israel deliberately aided the newly formed Hamas movement so that it might undermine the strength of the more secular-nationalist factions.

Israel had no intention of granting a Palestinian state at Madrid or at Oslo where the PLO was superseded by the quivering, quisling Palestinian Authority, too many of whose cronies grasped at the wealth and prestige it gave them at the expense of their own kin. As Israel beamed into the world's satellites and microphones its desire for peace and a two-state solution, it more than doubled the number of illegal Jewish settlements on the ground in the West Bank and around East Jerusalem, annexing them as it built and continues to build a superstructure of bypass roads and highways over the remaining, severed cities and villages of earthly Palestine. It has annexed the Jordan valley, the international border of Jordan, expelling any 'locals' inhabiting that land. It speaks with a viper's tongue over the multiple amputee of Palestine whose head shall soon be severed from its body in the name of justice, peace and security.

Through the home demolitions, the assaults on civil society that attempted to cast Palestinian history and culture into a chasm of oblivion; through the unspeakable destruction of the refugee camp sieges and infrastructure bombardments of the second Intifada, through assassinations and summary executions, past the grandiose farce of disengagement and up to the nullification of free, fair and democratic Palestinian elections Israel has made its view known again and again in the strongest possible language, the language of military might, of threats, intimidation, harassment, defamation and degradation.

Israel, with the unconditional and approving support of the United States, has made it dramatically clear to the entire world over and over and over again, repeating in action after action that it will accept no viable Palestinian state next to its borders. What will it take for the rest of us to hear? What will it take to end the criminal silence of the 'international community'? What will it take to see past the lies and indoctrination to what is taking place before us day after day in full view of the eyes of the world? The more horrific the actions on the ground, the more insistent are the words of peace. To listen and watch without hearing or seeing allows the indifference, the ignorance and complicity to continue and deepens with each grave our collective shame.

The destruction of Gaza has nothing to do with Hamas. Israel will accept no authority in the Palestinian territories that it does not ultimately control. Any individual, leader, faction or movement that fails to accede to Israel's demands or that seeks genuine sovereignty and the equality of all nations in the region; any government or popular movement that demands the applicability of international humanitarian law and of the universal declaration of human rights for its own people will be unacceptable for the Jewish State. Those dreaming of one state must be forced to ask themselves what Israel would do to a population of 4 million Palestinians within its borders when it commits on a daily, if not hourly basis, crimes against their collective humanity while they live alongside its borders? What will suddenly make the raison d'etre, the self-proclaimed purpose of Israel's reason for being change if the Palestinian territories are annexed to it outright?

The lifeblood of the Palestinian National Movement flows through the streets of Gaza today. Every drop that falls waters the soil of vengeance, bitterness and hatred not only in Palestine but across the Middle East and much of the world. We do have a choice over whether or not this should continue. Now is the time to make it.
Jennifer Loewenstein is the Associate Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She can be reached at amadea311@earthlink.net

============================

Documentaries:
Fifteen documentaries are available to watch right now at www.gisfilms.org . Global Information Services has mounted this incredible website with streaming video so that anyone, anywhere, at any time, can watch these informative films online.
Films available at http://www.gisfilms.org are:
* PEACE, PROPAGANDA, AND THE PROMISED LAND
* LIFE IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE
* PALESTINE IS STILL THE ISSUE
* HIJACKING CATASTROPHE
* THE EASIEST TARGETS
* WALL OF HATE
* LOSS OF LIBERTY
* THE KILLING ZONE
* BORN IN THE USA: MUSLIM AMERICANS TRAILER
* THIS IS NOT YOUR WAR
* GHASSAN ANDONI
* EDWARD SAID ON ORIENTALISM
* AZMI BISHARA
* CONFRONTING THE WALL: ART AND RESISTANCE IN PALESTINE, PART 7
* WALL OF SHAME

RU

Questions 1, 2 & 3 - Mass ballot - Pass it on!!

2008-10-10T19:34:00.002-04:00

Dear friends,
*short and sweet*
This is meant to briefly help in navigating the confusing and often misleading language of ballot questions - for those of you that plan to vote in MA, or have friends that will vote this November (deadline to register is Oct. 15!) - there will be 3 questions on the ballot: (pass this on)
------------------------------
VOTE "NO" ON QUESTION 1, "YES" ON 2 AND 3!!

Why:

* Voting yes on 1 would reduce personal income tax - that may initially sound good, but what it really means is getting rid of the income which social programs rely on so that means less money for education, social services, public projects, etc. (These horrible economic times are not the times to cut funding for social services that low income families rely on, or teacher's salaries - for example..) Vote NO on 1!

* Question 2 is a vote to decriminalize people possessing less than one ounce of marijuana, and making it a civil offense instead - this means a huge help to people - particularly young people - who have CORI's and then cant get jobs! Vote YES on 2!
[Click HERE to read about what CORI's are; HERE to read about common mistakes on CORI records.]

* Question 3 is a vote to end dog racing in MA - which is cruel and unusual for dogs.
Vote YES on 3 to end dog racing.

-------------
OK - maybe you don't agree (I doubt it) - but even if you disagree, isn't it better to be informed in advance of the vote, and to understand the consequences of each choice?
So please, pass it on to other Massachusetts voters, so that we can all be better informed on what to expect in the ballot, and organized to have our values reflected in our vote.
Thank you!

;-)

The Arab Dance Seminar - East Coast Session

2008-09-04T14:55:00.002-04:00

Dear Dancers,
Here's a learning opportunity in our neck of the woods..
(I recommend you sign up before it sells out!)

M.
============

The Fourth East Coast Session of:

THE ARAB DANCE SEMINAR
Friday-Sunday October 24th-26th, 2008
Cambridge (Central SQ) MASS, USA
http://www.arabdanceseminar. com/

Teachers and performers include:
Karim Nagi, Amel Tafsout, Cassandra Shore, Kay Hardy Campbell, & Rachid Halihal

Subjects and workshops include:
Raqs Sharqi, Saidi, Dabkaat, Amazigh/Berber, North African, Khaligi/Gulf, Bedouin, Zaar, & Zeffa,
plus classes in Arabic Language, Rhythm, Arabic Music, History, Costume, and Culture.

Complete info and registration at http://www.arabdanceseminar. com , or scroll down.

The ARAB DANCE SEMINAR (October 24th-26th, 2008 - the East Coast session) is the first repeating event of its kind in America. All previous Seminars since November 2005 have sold out with maximum attendance. This is the first time the Seminar is being held in the Boston area. The goal of this intensive weekend of workshops, lectures, performances and dance parties is to give the student a comprehensive Arab cultural dance experience. Going beyond nebulous "Bellydance" or generic "Middle Eastern" categories, the Seminar puts all the skills, techniques and practices back into their cultural contexts. The Arab world, home of over 20 countries in 4 zones (North Africa, Egypt, Levant, and The Gulf) is the origin and breeding ground for multiple styles and practices with a common language and aesthetic. This Seminar helps clarify and illuminate that tradition.

The Arab Dance Seminar is created for people with a minimum of 2 years dance experience. The faculty seeks to give every student the authentic techniques, choreographies, and comprehension of Arab dance. Every dancer will take every workshop and lecture; there is no layered scheduling that forces the student to choose between classes. The Music classes will be taught using generic language that is understandable to non-musicians. The student will be provided with study sheets and recordings that reflect the curriculum. Every dancer will leave the Seminar with new routines to perform and teach, plus a responsible cultural understanding of the dance and music.

Special focal topic for this session:
MARRIAGE & MOVEMENT : How Dance & Music Are Central To WEDDINGS in the Arab World.
The October 2008 East Coast Arab Dance Seminar will focus on the Wedding Ceremony. At no other events in the Arab world are music and dance more prevalent, endorsed, and enjoyed than in wedding and engagement ceremonies. Dance and Music are part of the mainstream entertainment for both village and urban weddings. Dance and Music are also participatory, and communally enjoyed by the guests, wedding party, and even the bride and groom. This Seminar will re-enact, analyze, and enjoy many of the songs, choreographies, and rituals of the Arab wedding. These include the Zaffa procession, the Dabka line dances, the Henna nights, the coffee rituals, the songs, and the professional entertainment.

Although there is an academic and ethnographic emphasis, there are neither desks nor computer stations. The student will learn by dancing, moving, singing, clapping and sweating. It is an active seminar where the goal is to physically practice the subjects, and to retain new knowledge for future performances and teaching.

http://www.arabdanceseminar. com/

Dance Relevance:
It's time to go beyond Bellydance ! With the enormous explosion of dance enthusiasm in the USA, it is often forgotten where the origin of this phenomenon occurred. Many dancers today do not know the ethnic origin, cultural context, social implications or national varieties of the dances they are performing. Often the lyrical content of each song is also unknown by the dancer. Few dancers know the inner workings and systems of the musical compositions they choreograph and perform to. These factors cause a huge homogenization, resulting in the artistic displacement of the art form. This Arab Dance Seminar gives the dancer the tools and knowledge needed to be a more informed presenter, as well as a more skilled performer and teacher. The instructors are either native primary sources, highly schooled professionals who have lived in Arab countries, or both. They will help each dancer unite the soul, brain and body to create the true authentic dance.

Societal Relevance:
Arab culture has always been a fascination for Westerners. The Orientalist painters of the 17 and 18th centuries like Gerome and Delacroix were obsessed with the street market and household scenes of Arab lands. Currently, modern singers like Beyonce, Sting, Jay-Z and Shakira use the melodies and rhythms on their CDs and dance moves in their videos. Every major college and university teaches Arabic language, and has a Middle Eastern Studies department. But this fascination occurs with a simultaneous fear and paranoia. There is an ongoing media pre-occupation with the political and military turmoil in the Arab world. The Arabs have been designated as the antagonists in a proposed "clash of civilizations." There is no Arab in America that does not experience some type of political existence by default (even while simply dancing or singing). It is our belief that the study of dance and music can humanize the study of Arab culture and people. The enjoyment and cultural knowledge gained from the study and practice of human arts can dissolve the fictitious Arab-West dichotomy.

Schedule:
Classes will start at 4pm Friday October 24th and end by 4pm Sunday October 26th.

Locations:
Lectures & Performances are held at:
-YWCA Hannum Hall, 7 Temple St. Cambridge, MA 02139 (Friday 4pm -9pm, and Saturday 7pm - 11:30pm)
Dance Classes are held at:
-DANCE COMPLEX Studio #1, 536 Mass. Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (Saturday 9:30am - 6pm, Sunday 10:30am-4pm)

Fees: (purchase by CC or PayPal at www.arabdanceseminar.com)

FEE for ENTIRE SEMINAR : All Classes & concerts from Friday thru Sunday (YWCA & Dance Complex): $290

FRIDAY WORKSHOPS ONLY : Arabic Language, Arabic Music, Culture and History. $140
@ YWCA Hannum Hall 7 Temple St. Cambridge, MA (Friday 4pm -9pm)

SATURDAY WORKSHOPS ONLY: Egyptian Raqs Sharqi, Khaligi, Zeffa, Henna Party, and Amazigh/Berber. $190
@ Dance Complex Studio #1, 536 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (Saturday 9:30am - 6pm)

SATURDAY NIGHT CONCERT & DANCE PARTY ONLY: Performances by Cassandra, Amel Tafsout, Karim Nagi & Rachid Halihal. $20
@ YWCA Hannum Hall 7 Temple St. Cambridge, MA (Saturday 7pm - 11:30pm)

SUNDAY WORKSHOPS ONLY : Dabka, Saidi, Bedouin Zaffe, North African, Zaar. $140
@ Dance Complex Studio #1, 536 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (Sunday 10:30am-4pm)

The student is responsible for their own Lodging, Transportation and Food.
There are many restaurants and hotels in the immediate area. Visit www.arabdanceseminar.com/ cambridgehotels.pdf

http://www.arabdanceseminar. com/

TEACHERS FOR THIS SEMINAR INCLUDE :

CASSANDRA SHORE: Raqs Sharqi and Egyptian Folklore : www.jawaahir.org

Cassandra is one of America's leading performers and teachers of Egyptian Raqs Sharqi and Middle Eastern folkloric dance. A distinctively musical dancer, you can hear Arabic music better when Cassandra dances to it. Her choreographies are closely tied to musical nuances. Her style is powerful yet understated. The legendary Egyptian dancer Ragia Hassan says, "Because Cassandra has come to Cairo for many years, you can see it in her dance. She is the first American dancer I saw that is very soft, very relaxed [and has the] Egyptian style. She is a very great dancer and teacher." Cassandra has been the lead instructor at Oasis Dance Camp since it was founded 23 years ago, and teaches internationally as well as in the U.S. She founded and directs the acclaimed Jawaahir Dance Company of Minneapolis, which established a seasonal concert series at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis, and has presented 110 formal concerts and 240 community concerts. Jawaahir has hosted 83 guest artists, including distinguished dancers, choreographers, composers, and musicians from the Middle East, and has collaborated and/or performed with 26 regional performing arts groups. Simon Shaheen has invited Cassandra to perform twice in his acclaimed Mahrajan al-Fan in New York City, a testament to her artistry as well as to her careful portrayal of the Arab dance arts. Watching Cassandra perform is an unforgettable experience. Taking class from her is a great opportunity for dancers of all skill and experience levels to delve deeper into the world of Middle Eastern dance.

KARIM NAGI: Arabic Music, Rhythm, Dabkaat, Seminar Organizer : www.karimnagi.com

Karim Nagi is a native Egyptian who has lived in the Boston area for over 20 years. Karim performs primarily Arabic, Turkish and Andalusian hand percussion, including the Egyptian Tabla (goblet drum), Riqq (tambourine) and Segat (brass castanets), plus Arab Folk Dances. Karim is a former faculty member of the New England Conservatory of Music. Karim leads the SHARQ Arabic Music Ensemble performing the classical Arabic instrumental and vocal repertoire. Karim travels the country presenting his education Arabiqa program, bringing Arabic Music, Dance and Culture to school grades 4 up through the university level. Karim developed and currently performs Turbo Tabla a music and dance show that combines traditional Arabic and Turkish music with modern Electronica and Techno. He has authored 3 instructional DVDs and 2 instructional CDs on Arab Rhythms and Drumming. Karim also dances Tahteeb Cane Dance and Dabka Arabic Line Dance and once lead the Zaitoun Dabka Troupe. For 5 years, before becoming a full time touring teacher and performer, he produced the wildly successful 'Arabesque Mondays' series at Club Passim in Harvard Square. His goal is to present music and dance as a single wholistic activity, fully integrated.

AMEL TAFSOUT: North African, Berber, and Bedouin : www.ameltafsout.com

Born in Algeria, AMEL TAFSOUT is an accomplished well respected Master Dancer and choreographer of North African MAGHREB DANCE, a dance anthropologist, a singer, a storyteller and a Language instructor. She has lectured, danced, taught, sung and conducted anthropological research all over the world. She performed in many European countries and the US. She lived in many European countries (France, Germany and the UK); she speaks four languages and has published articles in academic and popular magazines. She is the Director of "The Tafsoutettes", her dance company, formed in 2001. With her company Amel Tafsout aims to perform the dances of the Maghreb and other Arabic countries with skill and sincerity as well as to educate audiences about North African culture, most notably women's traditions and evolutions through dance, story telling but still retaining a sense of wit and sharing the spirit of celebration.

KAY HARDY CAMPBELL: Khaligi, Gulf Dance and Music : www.kayhardycampbell.com

For more than 25 years, Kay has taught Gulf women's folkloric dance across the U.S. to women at dancer-sponsored events as well as at academic institutions including MIT, Agnes Scott College, and Wellesley College. Women of the Gulf perform these dances in groups to celebrate occasions such as weddings, school graduations and national holidays. The women traditionally perform their dances in pairs or in groups. Kay learned these folk arts from the women of Saudi Arabia when she lived there for several years. While Kay doesn't perform these dances in public, she has coached and choreographed group dances for professional performers including Boston's Near East Dance Theatre, Libana and the Jawaahir Dance Company. She has been the featured folkloric instructor at Oasis Dance Camp four times. Kay speaks, reads and writes Arabic, having a BA in Arabic and an MA in Middle Eastern Studies. She also plays the `ud and helps direct the Arabic Music Retreat. Kay's goal with her classes is to share the joyous aspects of Arabian women's traditional culture with women in the West by letting them experience it firsthand through music and dance.

RACHID HALIHAL: Singer, Oudist, Violinist, featured performer for Saturday Concert : www.rachidhalihalmusic.com

As a world-class musician, Rachid Halihal brings to the community the true character and spirit of musics from the classical Egyptian repertoire which is much loved throughout the Middle East; from the Fertile Crescent; from diverse regions of Morocco and North Africa; and also the mezmerizing music of the Arabian Gulf. As a child, growing up in Fez, Morocco, Rachid played the nei and sang, imitating the famous singers of the time. At age fourteen he entered "Dar Aadyil" the Conservatory of Music in Fez. At first he studied Western classical and Andalus music on piano and violin. He soon expanded to include a variety of other instruments in order to better express his native music. In addition to his voice, which is best featured in the Andalus style, his strongest instruments are the oud (similar to a lute without frets) and the violin, which he plays in both the classical manner and upright resting on the knee for Moroccan folkloric music.

MEIVER DE LA CRUZ: Seminar Administrator : www.meiver.com

Meiver, a Middle Eastern Dance performer and instructor in Boston, is a fiery entertainer specializing in Egyptian / Lebanese Cabaret style. With natural grace combined with her authentic feel for Arabic rhythms, sheÕs become one of BostonÕs favorite and most sought after performers. Her strong sense of rhythm fills her audience with excitement, leaving them mesmerized by the elegance, gracefulness and mystery of her movements. Beyond Raqs Sharqi, her repertoire includes double veil, sword balancing, raqs al assaya (cane dance from upper Egypt), Dabka, and the Muwashahaat rhythms of Andalusian origin. Having spent the first 16 years of her life in the Dominican Republic, Meiver grew up dancing to tropical rhythms like Salsa, Merengue and Bachata and carries the warmth of the Caribbean in her heart. She started her professional study of dance 10 years ago, covering a variety of genres which have come to influence her style.

Complete info, registration, videos, schedule and maps at:
http://www.arabdanceseminar. com/

Brought to you by Karim Nagi & Meiver De La Cruz
http://www.arabdanceseminar. com/
arabdanceseminar@gmail.com

New Wave of Immigration Raids Includes LEGAL Immigrants!

2008-08-06T13:05:00.005-04:00

Over the last few days I have received several emails from concerned friends and organizations trying to alert different immigrant communities about the latest wave of immigration raids taking place in MA and other states. The difference now is that people being picked up include green card holders...
Please read below and help create awareness. The Mira Coalition is trying to activate rapid response networks.

FYI- TODAY - LEGAL CLINIC IN LOWELL
There will be a Legal Clinic and Education Session for Community Members detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Lowell police. Attorneys will be available to answer questions.

3:00pm-6:00pm, Friday, August 8th
Metta Health Center
135 Jackson Street
Lowell, MA

Provided by: MIRA, LCHC, GBLS, Deported Diaspora, and others…
Contact: Sidney Liang
Email: Sidneyli@lchealth.org
Website: http://www.myspace.com/deporteddiaspora

=====
Hello Boston area MIRA members and allies,

We are getting reports that people are being picked up all over that state that have criminal convictions (including misdemeanors) who have a range of immigration statuses (including green card holders). MIRA, in coalition with our partners, is in the initial stages of responding to this raid. If you have any information about who has been detained, please send as much of the following information that you have to Sarang Sekhavat at ssekhavat@miracoalition.org.

Name:

Date of birth:

Country of origin:

Where the person is being held:

A # (Alien registration number):

Thank you so much for your assistance. We are compiling this list and will be sharing it with lawyers who are putting together a legal team to respond to this. Now is the time to activate the rapid response networks to respond to the legal and humanitarian needs that will arise in response to this raid.

--------------------------------------------------

Ellen Gallagher Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition

Live in a Welcoming Massachusetts!
To learn more and sign the pledge go to:
www.welcomingma.org

Become a MIRA member
www.miracoalition.org/membership

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Article from Today's Lowell Sun Newspaper
http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_10113212

Dozen are arrested on immigration warrants

By Robert Mills, rmills@lowellsun.com

Article Last Updated: 08/06/2008 06:36:31 AM EDT

LOWELL -- A dozen people across Lowell were arrested on immigration-related federal warrants during a 26-hour span ending last night.

The spate of arrests began Monday at about 6:40 p.m., and concluded with an arrest Tuesday night at about 8 p.m., according to police arrest logs.

Lowell police referred questions about the arrests to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, where spokesman Paula Grenier would say only that all the arrests targeted "specific individuals," all of whom had prior criminal records.

More than half of those arrested had previously been arrested in Lowell, including one man, identified as Dang Sy, 28, of 25 Dover St., who had previously faced home invasion and drug-trafficking charges in Lowell, according to previous arrest logs.

Officials from ICE, including the agency's regional director, Bruce Foucart, were in Lowell in March to address the city Race Relations Council and ensure residents that ICE agents do not set out on random sweeps for immigrants. That news was meant to assure local immigrants that they would not be targeted for immigration enforcement if they reported a crime or were simply going about their daily business.

"We do not do willy-nilly stops on the side of the road," Foucart told the council. "Our focus is on investigating and prosecuting criminal investigations."

The statements made before the council seemed to hold true with the arrests this week, with all 12 people being arrested on warrants, which would have been obtained from a federal court prior to the arrests. All those arrested on the warrants were held without bail and turned over to the Middlesex County Sheriff's Office, which typically houses local prisoners held on federal charges.

In addition to Sy, those arrested were Chanvesna Pech, 27, of 106 Westford St., unit 3; Sokon Cheurm, 28, of 30 Angle St., unit 45; Chamroeun Mao, 26, of 34 S. Loring St., first floor; Song Sao, 28, of 132 Mt. Washington St., third floor; Sarin Chhoeun, 25, of 4 Glidden Ave.; Torn Kim, 28, of 28 Leverette St.; Vicheth Ang, 29, of 135 Franklin St., fifth floor, Stoneham; Soknon Chan, 25, of 46 Canton St.; Thy Toch, 36, of 119 Warwick St.; Sacha Tang, 27, of 62 S. Walker St.; and Chan Chum, 31, of 22 Claire St., unit 2.

It was not immediately clear when the suspects would appear in federal courts.

on Boston Latino TV

2008-02-29T16:04:00.002-05:00

Eve who is taking my class, is also the host of a cool local TV show.
This week her crew came to my class to do an interview, it was great fun!!!

Check it out!

RU

CharmingBurka on Engadget

2008-02-07T09:50:00.001-05:00

post data--- other recent posts:

http://www.digital.udk-berlin.de/en/projects/summer07/haupt/bodytech/charmburka.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/14/bluetoothenabled-cha.html

*******************

Markus Kison's project "CharmingBurka" which I modeled at this years Seamless show, is featured today in Engadget. Watch pictures & video (it is me walking in a burka, down an electric escalator!)

Funny how I found out.. My friend Luis found it and emailed me this:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Luis Soto
Date: Feb 7, 2008 9:03 AM
Subject: Do you know about this?
To: Me

dude

I was reading my daily tech blogs when I saw this. I was intrigued by
what the headline suggested. IN any event I clicked on the pix and BAM
there you go. Your photo appears on the cell phone screen identifying
you as one of woman wearing a burka. I then proceeded to watch the
video and saw it was in Boston.. well there you go. hmmmm
coincidence???

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/07/the-charmingburka-breaks-no-laws-of-the-koran-only-taste/

ciao

Luis

RU

Racist Baby Book

2008-01-31T11:29:00.001-05:00

IMG00052
Originally uploaded by Meiver

The things you can find reading baby books can be surprising..
I found an anti-Arab cartoon.
A "funny" baby book - depicted an Arab infant with a ghutra, beard, guns and a granade.
The punchline was about how to make sure you don't take the wrong baby from the hospital, suggesting jokingly that regardless of how inexperienced, a parent could not make a mistake and take "Yasser Arafat's baby" - so there is nothing really to worry about..

The punchline rests on the (mistaken) assumption that we all as readers, will naturally agree that Arabs are naturally violent - and sufficiently "other" (different than ourselves).

The cartoon is also removing the child qualities of helplessness, cuteness and innocence that we normally attribute to babies, and that would make an adult feel like they have to care for and protect this child - creating totally the opposite effect: taking the childhood away from the subject (in comparison to it's peers) and making it the subject of our (assumed) immediate, expected and obvious rejection.

RU

Spring 2008 Class Schedule

2007-12-09T11:02:00.000-05:00

NEW LOCATION IN LAWRENCE!
we are at "Our House" - beautiful brand new studio!
168 Newbury St.
Lawrence, MA

==========

I've already started to work on the Spring 2008 Schedule.
Can't believe this year is over. It went so fast!
I will be taking a break over January, I've learned to chill out the hard way.
Come February, classes will start again - but with a totally new format. I've been thinking a lot about what works best and rethinking a curriculum that can serve better, people that are at different levels with their dance...
I'm VERY excited to try this out.

Add was designed by Leo.

RU

Gracias por volver...

2007-11-29T21:41:00.000-05:00

Soda Stereo
Home Depot Center
Los Angeles, CA
Nov 21st 207
3 original band members
3 original supporting musicians (from the original recordings!)
23, 000 fans

No saben lo que fue!

Cantar al unisono con 23 mil personas. Por fin eschuchar 'las canciones' de las voces e instrumentos de sus creadores - por fin tocadas bien, por fin completas, por fin perfectas, por fin mejores de lo que nunca fueron. Ver y entender de nuevo el significado de lo que ha sido la banda sonora de mi generacion.
Quien pude entender... solo quienes amamos la musica y estuvimos alli. La mayor candidad de personas en el Home Depot Center en toda su historia. La layenda que marco una era, un exito insuperable en la musica pop rock Latinoamericana. Mis amigos y yo. Charly, Tavo y Zeta. Tweety, Leandro y Leo G.
La mejor 'Primavera Cero', el 'Disco Eterno', 'El Temblor' con regeton, 'Juegos de seduccion' con un solo de guitarra superior al original (por primera vez, no inferior! - si alguien puede creerlo... Gustavo improvizo en ese solo de guitarra y lo supero!). Una version de 'Sueles dejarme solo' y otra de 'Tratame suavemente' que hacen brotar las lagrimas.. la mayor cantidad de saltos con 'Musica ligera'... todas las canciones que pedimos. Todos los deseos concedidos.

No saben lo que fue!!

Por parte de los seguidores que viajamos hasta alli:

Gracias Totales.

RU

Accion de Gracias

2007-11-23T00:59:00.000-05:00

Doy gracias por mi cuerpo, mi conciencia, mi salud, mi familia, su salud.
Por tener una pareja que me ama y me respeta, a quien amo y respeto.
Por mis amigos, su salud, su amistad y apoyo.
Por mi educacion, y mis tantos privilegios.
Por la libertad de cambiar de parecer sobre cualquier cosa.
Por la danza, la musica, las personas que me sirven de inspiracion y que me apoyan, a veces hasta sin saberlo.
Por los recursos naturales que todavia puedo utilizar, admirar, disfrutar y proteger.
Por todo lo que llena mi vida.
Doy gracias por las cosas que todavia desconozco, ya que proveen la curiosidad necesaria para continuar explorando las maravillas de la vida.
Doy gracias por el presente y por el maniana.
Por todo lo que he aprendido, y por la oportunidad de compartir mis ideas con otras personas - y seguir aprendiendo.

RU

cuanta gracia! (so much grace!)

2007-11-02T10:57:00.000-04:00

Youtube has really changed the world. It's amazing how much we can learn on it, regardless of what your interests are.
Before youtube, we really never got to see each other dance, all over the world, with the same ease and speed. The ability to store video files online, and share video across the world, means that dance is now shared quickly, so far, repeatedly. Suddenly we are not only able to record and transmit movement, but we also can see it multiple times, from anywhere in the world, at any hour of the day - and watch it enough to dissect it, and learn something from it.

This morning I found this AMAZING dance on it.
I really love Roma dance-- this one is described as a Roma Havasi Turkish solo performance, by a beautiful dancer called Reyhan.
She is truly exceptional at capturing the loose energy, sharp attitude and Roma heart of the dance - no rules, dancing as she pleases, with the hand gestures that say so much, and the bouncy hips moving to a 9/8 beat.

So darn cool.

RU

Not much has chaged! Police Brutality in Boston 1850's to the present

2007-10-30T18:08:00.000-04:00

As part of doing research for a term paper - I stumbled upon this poster from 1851, warning people of color against Boston police.

I keep feeling that learning history, especially history of oppressed groups and social movements, is both inspiring and disheartening. So often, the many injustices that have been challenged for 100's of years, are still the same struggles we face today. This is a great example, where in the following links you can see how there is no progress when it comes to stopping police acts of violence, and the lack of accountability surrounding them.

A recent case is that of Michael Bell. "Michael Edward Bell was a 21 year old man who was unarmed when fatally shot by Kenosha, Wisconsin police officers in the head. His mother and sister witnessed most of the altercation and also the shooting right in front of their faces, right outside of their house.

Less than a year after this horrific incident, participating officers Erich R. Strausbaugh, Erich R. Weidner and Albert B. Gonzalez were cited for "Performing within the realm of duty and showing great courage, ability and devotion to public service". Read more here.

There is also a web site called massbrutality.org, where you can read further about other incidents. As everything in the United States in a business, there is also a website where lawyers that specialize in police brutality cases can list their services. Apparently it is common to need a lawyer to defend yourself from police. Isn't that completely insane!?

Not surprisingly, I also found a Boston Globe article about an investigation on Police Brutality in Lawrence, MA - a predominantly Latino (mostly Dominican) neighborhood.

Human Rights Watch also has this interesting report posted online about their investigations on a higher incidence of reports from people of color of abuse by police forces (than reports by whites). It is aptly called "Shielded from Justice."

How fake is a democracy where it's citizens must spend so much effort on monitoring and investigating an institution created and sustained by those same citizens - supposedly with the goals to "serve and protect" them, but that has so vehemently taken over it's power to kill them and abuse them?

Welcome to America

2007-10-19T13:51:00.000-04:00

"land of the free, home of the brave..."

RU

Revising our views on Porn

2007-09-26T10:31:00.000-04:00

The article below begins to address some important issues about pornography - acknowledging their full complexity.
Whether it is true that some of us enjoy some kinds of porn, or that porn should be protected by the first amendment (which protects free speech), or that many women choose this work and enjoy it and would consider it to be liberating.. We know that for some people porn is feminist.

But is that true of all porn? Is that true of the majority of porn? Is that true of the reasons behind the popularity and strength of this billion dollar industrial complex? I wonder if after reading this we can begin to question which one is closer to the truth: is porn as an industry largely constructed on the basis of providing images of abuse, humiliation, and the illusion of the rape of women's bodies - and it is mainly created to satisfy a male audience's need of ownership of the female body and it's sexuality? or is it a source of liberation and empowerment of women, an educational tool, etc?
If the answer is complicated - does ignoring the current state of things help or hurt the cause of women (for liberation, respect, equality, etc)?
If there is further discussion to be had, and changes to be made -- are we avoiding this discussion just because it is too complicated? who suffers if the discussion is avoided? Who wins?

Below is an excerpt from the article on alternet that I'm referring to. Use the link to see the full text.

RU

============================

http://www.alternet.org/story/62833/

Pornography and the End of Masculinity

By Don Hazen
September 22, 2007

In his new book, Robert Jensen forces the reader to face the music
about the effects of a porn industry gone gonzo and the need to
reassess the trappings of masculinity as the source of increased
violence against and degradation of women.

I have always been part of the collective liberal progressive
libertarian value system that accepts pornography as a legitimate
expression of the First Amendment. Part of that thinking is that women
participate in porn films of their own free will and that porn often
represents fantasies -- though sometimes quasiviolent or degrading --
that people actually have. So as long as people are merely acting in
porn films and there is no coercion, or law-breaking, it is
acceptable.

But I've changed my mind. No, I'm not a prude, or anti-sex. Nor do I
think there should be a national campaign to snuff out all porn. In
fact, I sometimes watch certain kinds of porn. But what has become
clear to me is that, under the guise of the First Amendment, a huge
and powerful porn industrial complex has grown out of control. And a
big part of its growth is fueled, not just by the internet, but by
continually upping the ante, increasing the extremes of degradation
for the women in tens of thousands of films made every year. I am
convinced, although it is, of course, difficult to document, that the
huge audiences for porn and the pervasiveness of the themes and
behaviors of degradation are having a negative impact on the way men
behave and the way society treats women.

Stretch Marks, Sagging Breasts, Wide Hips

2007-09-12T15:14:00.000-04:00

Many of my friends are having babies, and recently I was talking to one of them about the difficulties women have in dealing with all the changes that our bodies go through during pregnancy and birth. Jeff was explaining how the mother of his baby was talking about her experience as her body was changing, and the things she was worried about. All he said was very familiar as I have heard similar things from many of my close girlfriends, who are worried about their breasts falling, embarrassed by their stretch marks, or depressed about their weight gains or how much their hips widened with birth (to name a few of the complaints). And who wouldn't be? Our society is merciless when it comes to rating women's bodies. It is as if we have bodies not for living, but for the purpose of being evaluated by all others, and that evaluation determines much of our worth and determines much of how we see ourselves and each other. Living in the US we are surrounded by physical appearance pressures, and bombarded with TV shows about how we all need plastic surgery, and how it can make us really "happy!!" -- but it is not just an issue here - during a recent trip to Brazil and Argentina I saw how prevalent plastic surgery and liposuction are there as well.

I remember taking a nutrition course as a freshman in college and this is a class I will never forget for two reasons: 1. it made me fall in love with food and cooking, once I understood the chemistry behind the (healthy) effects of a healthy diet in my body. The #2 reason is because the discussion about nutrition in maternity changed the way I understood pregnancy completely. Turns out that in utero, babies do not nourish primarily from what you eat as you are pregnant - instead they feed and form to a great extent from what already was part of your body to begin with. To better explain, think about the complete skeleton of another human being being formed from the calcium already in your bones - not from the calcium you are eating as you are pregnant. The calcium you eat would have to go through many complex processes to be later absorbed by your body.

That made me understand the incredible sacrifice that there is in motherhood. When women make babies, we really surrender our bodies completely to this process and every layer from the inside out - from the composition of your bones, to your skin - is affected by pregnancy and birth.

Now, if there was a genuine effort to value women and mothers in our society - maybe going through this process, would be something that would earn women respect, love and admiration from their communities. But since this society devalues women's experiences and feminine things - an enlarged belly, saggy belly skin, saggy breasts and stretch marks are not badges of honor that show strength in having a child, nor are they sources of pride (and 'saggy' wouldn't have a negative connotation!). But the fact is, it is totally the opposite; despite all that is physically necessary to complete this process, women are expected to look the same as before, after birth -- "as if nothing happened", when everything happened! -- the goal being to maintain a girly look - and feed the obsession with youth and an almost childlike appearance and weight - that are most desirable today. Small waist, flat stomach, perky breasts, smooth skin, etc. you know, to look like children/teenagers, forever.

The reality of the experience of birth is hidden from our eyes. The images of pregnant women who are skinny and stylish is all we see. TV commercial show skin perfect bellies. Nothing like a picture of my mother who lost all her hair when she was pregnant with me, or had incredibly swollen legs and ankles when she was pregnant with my brother. It was the time when I've seen her look most beautiful but she would not have been fit for a TV commercial - she also had a big dark mark on her cheek caused by hormonal changes.

Imagine telling yourself 'Never dare wear a bikini again'. It may seem like not a huge change if you've never thought about it, but if one thinks seriously about never wearing a piece of clothing that one likes, never again, out of shame for one's appearance - it is a very big issue that speaks loudly about so much of what is going on in one's mind.

Jeff told me about an interesting website called the shape of a mother, where women go and post pictures of their naked bodies during and after pregnancy. I think it is such a wonderful idea, because it helps universalize the experience by exposing something that we almost never see. Maybe if you've never seen someone else's stretch marks you think it's something that can only happen to you, or that yours are the "worst" - right?

Reading through it, I observed how a lot of the stories of the moms I first read were from very young mothers (18-23yrs old). In here women share their birthing stories (and there is so much to learn about birthing, wild!) and there is a blog and a flickr community for the pictures. It's an incredibly courageous idea and so overdue! (the site is only 1yr old).

I also appreciate that it is a resource not just for pregnant women who want to share and compare their experiences (one more way the net helps us fight capitalist alienation! woo hoo!) but also it is a way for us all to learn from, and appreciate real images of real women - and value their experiences.

The pictures here (used without permission) are publicly posted and taken from the flickr community associated with this blog, they are of a 30 week pregnant lady - pregnant with triplets. Then we see her belly after delivery.

I want to dedicate this post to Patty and her new baby Mayte Nicole, who is soo cute and 18 days old.

RU

Mahmoud Reda

2007-09-04T15:28:00.000-04:00

Last month (and thanks to Ryskallah Riyad of CT, who organized this event) I attended a workshop with the living legend of the dance, Mahmoud Reda.

I have gotten really lucky lately with my learning opportunities.
During the class I was constantly amazed at his vast knowledge, talent as a teacher, and at his amazing energy - at 77 years of age he taught two four hour classes, covering two choreographies and a technique section, and at the end of each day, danced the full choreographies for us. When I came up to take this picture he said to me "you are doing very well!" and if I were white, that would have been a moment where you would have seen me blush.

One of the many things I love about this art form is that, in it - age is revered and respected. In most dance forms there is a serious ageism problem, where dancers are expected to retire and never perform or teach again as they get older - specially in classical ballet.

In Middle Eastern Dance, however - specially in its women dances - there is a clear understanding that life experiences enhance your dancing. In fact some of my teachers have related life experiences such as birthing as crucial transitions in improving their abilities in this dance.

Is that really true, and why would that be the case?
In a dance that explores womanhood and sexuality, and that (at times) challenges social norms -- age gives you the confidence and strength to really be honest in the dance, without experiencing many of the hang ups that are visible when one sees a young (or new) performer.
Age and experience act as liberating factors that open the dance to its full potential, once the awkwardness and shyness of youth is gone.

This discipline (mostly in it's non performance version) should keep your muscles strong and flexible, but does not include any movements that are against the body. This dance is not meant to injure you and render you a 'retired' dancer.
There are dangerous moves sometimes used in performance (like deep back bends and Turkish drops) that should only be done after you know how to do them safely - but for the most part, one can age gracefully and actively in this dance.
That, I think is really cool.

***

Afterwards I went home and searched youtube for clips of his work in the 50's and 60's and found him dancing, jumping through the air, spinning, along with Faridah Fahmy. Here's a short Playlist of the videos I found, where they do everything from "hollywood musical" / grease type of stuff (but in Arabic!) to what's he's best known for - creating visions that are now part of what we know as Egyptian dance (both "classical" and Folkoric), through his work with his "Reda Troupe" - one of the most important representative troupes of Egyptian (dance) Folklore.

RU.

Turning Over a New Leaf

2007-08-31T14:07:00.000-04:00

and after a long hiatus.. I'm back!

After processing a lot of changes, I'm happy to be back in the blogosphere, now dedicating almost 100% of my time to dance and my studies about gender issues and culture.

One very exciting new thing in my life is my involvement with the genius of Ahmet Luleci. He is the director of Collage Dance Ensemble; an award winning dance company - and an internationally renowned master dance instructor.

I also continue to be proudly involved with my dear friends Karim, Nina and Lauren-Michelle in Bellydance Overdrive. We should be doing a Boston show this Fall, and I could not be happier about it.

And I also gotta tell you all about this:

I just returned from a trip that pushed me in every way to change and improve.
I spent 2.5 months in Brazil, and 0.5 in Argentina - mostly studying dance, but also learning Portuguese, exploring the local cultures (dance and otherwise) and traveling around to see how amazing the South American landscape truly is.

I need more money to do that for several years at a time.
And I had no idea I would be able to do, see, and learn as much as I did.

I'm still working on organizing the photos from my time in Brazil and Argentina, but I can begin by saying that dance there is totally something else, that I could not have asked for better dance teachers, better friends and a better time.

I was lucky to have so so so many generous enablers!; people that helped my dance and travel dreams come true during that time. For all their help I am so grateful!

Thank you Claudia B., Dalva O., Ana Karina, Rodrigo, Salvador, John, Marita, and Lulu for hosting me in your houses.
Thanks to Betty, Fabiano, Adilson, Aline, Rafaela, Beto, Marcelo, Igor, for offering your friendship!
Thanks to all my teachers for their lessons and corrections (Amir - I am finding the subtle ;D) --)
And thanks to Zelly-Belly, my Sao Paulo accomplice who is the best friend anyone can make while traveling alone (resourceful, multi-lingual, generous, smart, helpufl, kind, funny, easy going, cool, etc etc etc..)

All these folks are stamped in my photo/video diary, which maybe in a few more months will be completely online and linked to this blog.

About my dance studies:
In Brazil I studied at Lulu Sabongi's Academy, primarily with her- as well as these other amazing dancers, who are instructors at her school: Munira, Jade, Juli and Amar. I thank them for their generosity and just overall coolness. Especially Lulu, who shared her video library of 25 years of research in the dance, with me - who took me to her house, introduced her beautiful family to me, and taught me so much - Thank you pretty lady.

In Salvador de Bahia, I studied Afro-Brazilian, Religious dances and Silvestre (Afro-Modern) Technique with one of the most amazing teachers I have ever had - Vera Pasos at the Escola De Danza, ran by the local Bahia government. I wished I had more time with her. I don't have words to describe her concentration, power and strength.

In (freezing cold) Argentina I met up with US based teacher and friend Amar Gamal and took a workshop with her and Saida (who is such a beautiful dancer! oh boy!) and whose mother Joumana was so helpful. I thank her for her help and friendship. And yes, those amazing costumes that Saida wears are made by her super talented mom. I also have to thank Leo (Saida's husband) and Mario Kirlis, for the car rides and help.

I also took 4 classes at Prince Amir Thaleb's beautiful school in Buenos Aires. I met his lovely sister, took a class (each) with 3 of the instructors that teach in his school, who are amazing (Yael, Yousef and Jonathan).
I am soo impressed by their methods, the rgurous training that is required in their school before dancers perform, the emphasis on cultural an folk dance that gives the dance it's history and correct meaning, the serious artistry and high level technical example of the teachers.
It may sound like I am exaggerating, but I guess only someone who dances and goes see on their own - can understand what I mean.
And also, people like me, who struggle here to teach and perform will be so impressed by the level of the students in these schools (the US is at such a poor level, it is depressing to be back here with so very few options of people to learn from, to be completely honest) - and by the many performance opportunities that dancers have there. Specially, not in clubs and dingy restaurants where people are trying to stuff dollar bills in your bra (why do dancers accept this!! grrrrrr!!), and your veil is landing in someone's plate - but in theaters and staged open venues where the dance is shared with an increasingly educated and appreciative audience that treats it the way it should be treated.

Some of my days in Argentina were also spent in bed, with a really bad cold and I thank my friend (of now 16 years!) Salvador and his roommates John and Maria Fernanda for taking care of me, calling the doctor twice, feeding me... thank you thank you thank you!!!

***

Another new thing I just did is get a my space page, and re-activate my orkut, since all my Brazilian friends are there (oi gallera!!). So go find me and add me!! ;-)

I'm also working on making my dance website more useful.. wish me luck.

Kisses

RU

Sexism and Abuse in Activist Circles

2007-06-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

Sharing an article that provides an initial discussion about the dynamics of abuse of women by men, and life after abuse in activist circles. It also highlights how everyone in the circle is involved in these dynamics, to the detriment of the victim. We don't have community accountability systems in place to deal with this elephant in the activist room, and because the activist scenes are male dominated and patriarchal - the issue will continue to be ignored unless women victims of abuse force the discussion, and men who claim to be "down", make a conscious effort (that includes serious self-revision!) to deal with the problem. How many decades of women activist will need to cry out over the same thing?
When will our work space cease to be a mere microcosm, a reproduction in denial of itself - of the world we are trying so hard to make more just?

Below is a brief quote - but just click on the tittle to read full article.

Activist Scenes are No Safe Space for Women: On Abuse of Activist Women by Activist Men

by via Tamara K. Nopper
Wednesday Jun 20th, 2007 2:50 AM

"As a woman who has experienced physical and emotional abuse from men, some of whom I had long relationships with, it is always difficult to learn from other activist women that they are being abused by activist men.

The interrelated issues of sexism, misogyny and homophobia in activist circles is rampant, so it is unsurprising that women are abused physically and emotionally by activist men with whom they work with on various projects.

...

Overall, activist scenes are no safe space for women because misogynists and abusive men exist within them. More, many of these abusers use the language, tools of activism and support by other activists as means to abuse women and conceal their behavior. And unfortunately, in a lot of political circles, regardless of how much we talk about patriarchy or misogyny, women are sacrificed in order to keep up “the work” or save the organization. Perhaps it is time we actually just care that activist women are vulnerable to being manipulated and abused by activist males and consider that addressing this is an integral part of the “work” that activists must do."

Eternal Embrace

2007-02-07T11:22:00.000-05:00

This picture came out in the news today under the title "Eternal Embrace" - I wonder if it is somehow related to the Etruscan Art at the MFA in Boston I have cited below. The distance between the sites is 493 km (about 6 hours 22 mins driving) - the time distance can't be precisely determined yet as the burial found this week has yet to be dated.

-------------

A pair of human skeletons lie in an eternal embrace at a Neolithic archaeological dig site near Mantova, Italy, in this photo released February 6, 2007. Archaeologists in northern Italy believe the couple was buried 5,000-6,000 years ago, their arms still wrapped around each other in a hug that has lasted millennia.

================

Sarcophagus and lid with portraits of husband and wife
Italic, Etruscan, Late Classical or early Hellenistic Period, Late 4th–early 3rd century B.C.

Place of Manufacture: Vulci, Lazio, Italy
Height : 88 cm (34 5/8 in.); width: 73 cm ( 28 3/4 in.); depth: 210 cm (11/16 in.)
Nenfro (volcanic stone)

Classification: Tomb equipment

The cover of the sarcophagus shows a man and woman lying nearly facing each other on a bed with pillows and a large sheet wrapped about them.The portrait of the man is of particular interest to the study of Etruscan (and Early Roman) portraiture, foreshadowing in many respects the Roman Republican portraiture which would, in considerable degree, devlop from the Etruscan form. The woman wears a double fillet or braids around her hair, a heart-shaped earring, and a long chiton with sleeves. It is difficult to tell what, if any, clothing the man was wearing, unless details of costume were added in paint. The pediments at each end of the lid have three ideal, female(?) heads in relief in rosettes.
The front of the body shows a ceremony, presumably the couple's marriage. They clasp hands in the center, or (more precisely) he places his hand around her wrist, while he also holds a knotted staff in the left hand. Four attendants follow on either side. Those on the left comprise (from center to corner) a man with a tall staff, a lantern or jar suspended from it; a woman with a tray on her head and a pitcher in her lowered right hand; a woman with a large fan or flabellum and a situla in her lowered right hand; and a woman with a lyre and plectron. On the right appear a young man with a chair; another with a small stick or scepter; a third with a curved horn; and a woman with a wreath and double flutes.
On the left end, two women, parasol over their heads, ride in a cart drawn by two mules driven by a male attendant. A winged spirit of death waves two snakes at them. On the right end, a bearded magistrate mounts a two-horse chariot, attended by a man with the pastoral staff or lituus.
Since the man on the major front panel wears the Greek himation, it has been suggested that he is the heroized deceased, leading his wife to the underworld. If such be the case, she may have survived him to have her own separate procession on the left end, and the scene on the front thus may be taken as a symbolic "marriage" ceremony, the union with death and life in the underworld rather than merely in life on earth.
The lid is broken across at the couple's legs and has been rejoined, with two small pieces missing. The body has cracks.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Galeano writes on Israeli Crimes

2006-07-31T14:20:00.000-04:00

Original article in CounterPunch.

A World in Love with Death

One Country Bombed Two Countries

By EDUARDO GALEANO

One country bombed two countries. Such impunity might astound were it not business as usual. In response to the few timid protests from the international community, Israel said mistakes were made.

How much longer will horrors be called mistakes?

This slaughter of civilians began with the kidnapping of a soldier.

How much longer will the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier be allowed to justify the kidnapping of Palestinian sovereignty?

How much longer will the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers be allowed to justify the kidnapping of the entire nation of Lebanon?

For centuries the slaughter of Jews was the favorite sport of Europeans. Auschwitz was the natural culmination of an ancient river of terror, which had flowed across all of Europe.

How much longer will Palestinians and other Arabs be made to pay for crimes they didn't commit?

Hezbollah didn't exist when Israel razed Lebanon in earlier invasions.

How much longer will we continue to believe the story of this attacked attacker, which practices terrorism because it has the right to defend itself from terrorism?

Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon: How much longer will Israel and the United States be allowed to exterminate countries with impunity?

The tortures of Abu Ghraib, which triggered a certain universal sickness, are nothing new to us in Latin America. Our militaries learned their interrogation techniques from the School of the Americas, which may no longer exist in name but lives on in effect.

How much longer will we continue to accept that torture can be legitimized?

Israel has ignored forty-six resolutions of the General Assembly and other U.N. bodies.

How much longer will Israel enjoy the privilege of selective deafness?

The United Nations makes recommendations but never decisions. When it does decide, the United States makes sure the decision is blocked. In the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. has vetoed forty resolutions condemning actions of Israel.

How much longer will the United Nations act as if it were just another name for the United States?

Since the Palestinians had their homes confiscated and their land taken from them, much blood has flowed.

How much longer will blood flow so that force can justify what law denies?

History is repeated day after day, year after year, and ten Arabs die for every one Israeli. How much longer will an Israeli life be measured as worth ten Arab lives?

In proportion to the overall population, the 50,000 civilians killed in Iraq-the majority of them women and children-are the equivalent of 800,000 Americans.

How much longer will we continue to accept, as if customary, the killing of Iraqis in a blind war that has forgotten all of its justifications?

Iran is developing nuclear energy, but the so-called international community is not concerned in the least by the fact that Israel already has 250 atomic bombs, despite the fact that the country lives permanently on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Who calibrates the universal dangerometer? Was Iran the country that dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima?

In the age of globalization, the right to express is less powerful than the right to apply pressure. To justify the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, war is called peace. The Israelis are patriots, and the Palestinians are terrorists, and terrorists sow universal alarm.

How much longer will the media broadcast fear instead of news?

The slaughter happening today, which is not the first and I fear will not be the last, is happening in silence. Has the world gone deaf?

How much longer will the outcry of the outraged be sounded on a bell of straw?

The bombing is killing children, more than a third of the victims.

Those who dare denounce this murder are called anti-Semites.

How much longer will the critics of state terrorism be considered anti-Semites?

How much longer will we accept this grotesque form of extortion?

Are the Jews who are horrified by what is being done in their name anti-Semites? Are there not Arab voices that defend a Palestinian homeland but condemn fundamentalist insanity?

Terrorists resemble one another: state terrorists, respectable members of government, and private terrorists, madmen acting alone or in those organized in groups hard at work since the Cold War battling communist totalitarianism. All act in the name of various gods, whether God, Allah, or Jehovah.

How much longer will we ignore that fact that all terrorists scorn human life and feed off of one another?

Isn't it clear that in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, it is the civilians, Lebanese, Palestinian, and Israeli, who are dying?

And isn't it clear that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the invasion of Gaza and Lebanon are the incubators of hatred, producing fanatic after fanatic after fanatic?

We are the only species of animal that specializes in mutual extermination.

We devote $2.5 billion per day to military spending. Misery and war are children of the same father.

How much longer will we accept that this world so in love with death is the only world possible?

Eduardo Galeano is the author of Memories of Fire, Open Veins of Latin America and Days and Nights of Love and War. His newest book, Voices of Time, was published in English in May.

horror in Lebanon

2006-07-18T18:07:00.000-04:00

I just received this email from friend Ayah in Lebanon describing the horror they are experiencing. Unfortunately we know this slaughter campaigns are not new for Arabs. She's requested to spread out the word about what is happening and this is why I'm posting this. Probably many of you have also may stories from your friends, family and loved ones to share.
Israel's genocidal and terrorist sweeping of Arabs seems to have no boundaries.
Feels like the whole world is just sleeping comfortably and looking the other way (once again), and I don't get it.
Like my sister Trina says.. where is the outrage!?M.

From: Ayah Bdeir

hi all,thank you so much for all your emails and words of support.
i can't tell youhow much me and my family appreciate it.my family and i are physically ok, but i will not start describing theemotional, psychological and mental state we, or any one in lebanon is in.Many of you have asked me to write updates whenever i can, and so i writethis the night before i venture with my sister to jordan, through syria, onthe tripoli road, the last one that hasn't been destroyed yet.

242 civilians have died so far, hundreds more wounded... israeli planeshaven't left lebanese skies to rest... over 25 bridges have been destroyed,and today, the army department responsible of reconstructing roads and bridges was bombarded twice.
half an hour later, when paramedics andsoldiers were evacuating the dead and wounded, israeli planes hit with 4more bombs, 11 people died and 41 were wounded.over 50,000 people have been displaced from the south running from thechemical and phosphoric weapons as well as the more legal butot less lethalones. Over 100,000 have left the country through syria. The british, french,italian and other embassies have started to get their citizens out byguarded ferries or helicopters. the american, canadian and some others arestarting tomorrow. The real fear on the streets is that once all theforeigners are out of the country, the bloodshed against civilians will"really"start.yesterday, taanayel and candia factories of milk and dairy were bombarded,and a procter and gamble wearhouse with 15 millon dollars worth of food,cleaning products, baby products etc was destroyed. my sister, who ispregnant and has a new born is sadly counting the number of pampers she hasleft for her baby as most suppliers tell her they have run out.i went down from the mountains to beirut yesterday to pack up my things.i've never dreamt of seeing such emptiness in the streets, or hearing such ahorrible silence, only a week after the city was as loud, happy and vibrantas ever. when i got home, the silence was broken several times by israeliplanes bombarding the nearby suburb of dahieh. my sister and i continuedpacking calmly, as we (and everyone else) have become accustomed to thehorrific sounds.i had to go to several pharmacies before i could find headache medicine.employees in supermarkets looked at me apologetically whehn they pointed toempty shelves where bread, rice and milk used to be. i got an sms from afriend of mine telling me to rush to a gas station nearby because they hadjust gotten some fuel.jordan and the united arab emirates have been trying to send food suppliesthrough trucks for days, but can't get through. and today, an ambulance sentfrom the emirates was bombarded.for people who rightfully feel that international news is not doing thesituation any justice, you can read:the english lebanese daily: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/home2.asp<http://www.dailystar.com.lb/home2.asp>or the english version of the leading newspaper annahar:<http://web.naharnet.com/default.asp> http://web.naharnet.com/default.aspMany of you have asked me what you can do. All i can suggest is look forreality, not distortion in the news, and help spread the word.i hope none of you, or your loved ones, ever have to go through anythingremotely close to this experience,love,-Ayah

..me quieren en Chile?

2006-03-11T10:54:00.000-05:00

Have you guys heard LA's super cool band "Los Abandoned"?
Lady P & her mates punk it up w/ Latin Flava.
Well they have this tune called "Me quieren en Chile" - and is the first thing I thought about when I saw this morning pictures of the protests in Chile, during the inauguration of the new president, Michelle Bachelet - the first ever woman president in Chile's history. The protestors are pissed because Condoleeza Rice showed up to congratulate Michelle on the new gig. I wonder if Condoleeza is going to meet with Fidel, Hugo and Evo who are also suposed to be there for the inaugurations :-D - I bet, not.

So a "Condy" no la quieren en Chile.. I wonder why?

a new Loop

2006-03-09T11:46:00.000-05:00

so this a bit interesting to me..
The Latino Loop - an online, email-zine (did I just make that word up, I do that so much jaja) which usually sends out music & entertainement news for the Latin Alternative / Sanish rock (et al) community - had this massive amount of political news today.. miren abajo.
Seems like someone on the other side of the keyboard & screen had a heavy dose of political education.. ? Readers (me) are not complaining.
Maybe is because the office that puts it together is now sponsoring the Latin American tour of radical artist Manu Chao, and is being influenced by his politics & ideas..?
Well - that would be..erhm.. pretty cool.

From the loop:

In a landmark case for women’s rights in Mexico, a judge will award a rape victim a settlement for not being allowed an abortion. The law allows an abortion only in the case of rape or women whose lives are at risk, but various obstacles and red-tape usually prevent the abortion. The rape took place six years ago when the victim was just 13 years old. She will be awarded $40,000 and will receive a government stipend for her child’s education.

Manu Chao performed last week in Havana as part of his first Latin American tour in six years. He played to a crowd of tens of thousands of Cuban fans at the Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Tribune and in response to Chao’s openly anti-Bush, anti-imperialist perspective, the U.S. American Interests building flashed messages on an electronic billboard. One message played off of the lyrics to his song “Mentira” flashing the message, “Welcome to Cuba Manu Chao! Everything in this world is a lie and for that reason many Cubans are waiting for the last wave.”

Leonida Zurita Vargas, a Bolivian coca farm organizer who was scheduled as the keynote speaker for the “Winds of Change Conference” last Sunday in Vermont, found out that her visa was revoked due to alleged terrorist ties as she prepared to board a plane for the U.S. Back in 2003, Zurita was accused of being a terrorist by then president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and spent some time in a Cochabamba jail before she was eventually released for lack of evidence. Conference organizers were working to get her visa renewed, but if that failed Zurita was prepared to participate via telephone.

The National Council of La Raza reported last week that the federal government and the American Red Cross are unprepared to serve the needs of Latinos in the event of a disaster. Of the 230,000 Latinos affected by Hurricane Katrina, many were unable to get to shelters, including U.S. residents who were mistaken for undocumented immigrants and therefore denied FEMA assistance. Some undocumented immigrants were slated for deportation when they sought aid.

The U.S. Military has focused its recruiting efforts heavily on Latino youth with Hispanic enlistments on the rise, while enlistment among other ethnicities has dropped in recent years. Bilingual recruiters have a strong presence in high schools and counter-recruitment movements like the Aztec Warrior Project for Peace have begun popping up to educate Hispanic youth on the risks of military service.

International Women's Day

2006-03-08T13:31:00.000-05:00

to read about it click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day

So it doesn't really feel like there is a women's movement alive today.
At least it is not ovbious to me, and if I have to look so deep to find it, then there is a problem.
Ever feel like women (specially the women of color of the world) have way too many things to fight for, to be so quiet, darn it!?

I was listening yesterday to this speech by Lydia Sargent, from my friend Jon's awesome awesome page - check it out, and listen to these speeches, I do it while cleaning, is great - http://capedmaskedandarmed.com/intelligence/talks.html - and I was just feeling that all the evils she described are things that I experience every single day of my life. It made me angry and I guess that is a good thing.

About the stupid flyer - I got this on email today. Anyone who takes their kid to see this needs to just be smacked. Hard. (I'm being kind).
"Barbie, Live!"?
Barbie can't be alive because she is a fake plastic construction of a creature that could not walk straight if she were alive, because the weight of her chest is so big and disproportionate, and her legs would be so long and skinny and weak - that she would have no balance and just fall forward, and her waist wuld be so tiny it would crack. Remember the days when you wanted to be a barbie doll? I do.
But who cares about that - there is a Barbie show that will be poisoning the heads of lots of Boston little girls, coming to town. Someone is going to make money. Right?
Ladies,
We have a lot of work to do!
RU.

Libertad, Dominicanos.

2006-02-27T16:22:00.000-05:00

To celebrate the Independence day of my country - I will share here the words to our national hymn... I think it's awesome (despite the sexist "virile" reference, I guess Emilio wasn't thinking about Maria Trinidad Sanchez or Juana Saltitopa when he wrote this... )

(more history here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_republic)

Spanish lyrics
I
Quisqueyanos valientes, alcemos
Nuestro canto con viva emoción,
Y del mundo a la faz ostentemos
Nuestro invicto glorioso pendón.
¡Salve el pueblo que intrépido y fuerte,
A la guerra a morir se lanzó
Cuando en bélico reto de muerte
Sus cadenas de esclavo rompió.
Ningun pueblo ser libre merece
Si es esclavo indolente y servil;
Si en su pecho la llama no crece
Que templó el heroismo viril.
Mas Quisqueya la indómita y brava
Siempre altiva la frente alzará:
Que si fuere mil veces esclava
Otras tantas ser libre sabrá.
II
Que si dolo y ardid la expusieron
de un intruso señor al desdén,
¡Las Carreras ! ¡Beller!... campos fueron
que cubiertos de gloria se ven.
Que en la cima de heroíco baluarte,
de los libres el verbo encarnó,
donde el genio de Sánchez y Duarte
a ser libre o morir enseñó.
Y si pudo inconsulto caudillo
de esas glorias el brillo empañar,
de la guerra se vió en Capotillo
la bandera de fuego ondear.
Y el incendio que atónito deja
de Castilla al soberbio león,
de las playas gloriosas le aleja
donde flota el cruzado pendón.
III
Compatriotas, mostremos erguida
nuestra frente, orgullosos de hoy más;
que Quisqueya será destruida
pero sierva de nuevo, jamás.
Que es santuario de amor cada pecho
do la patria se siente vivir;
Y es su escudo invencible, el derecho;
Y es su lema: ser libre o morir.
Libertad que aún se yergue serena
La victoria en su carro triunfal.
Y el clarín de la guerra aún resuena
Pregonando su gloria inmortal.
¡Libertad! Que los ecos se agiten
Mientras llenos de noble ansiedad
Nuestros campos de gloria repiten
¡Libertad! ¡Libertad! ¡Libertad!

English translation
I
Brave men of Quisqueya,
Let us sing with strong feeling
And let us show to the world
Our invincible, glorious banner.
Hail, O people who, strong and intrepid,
Launched into war and went to death!
Under a warlike menace of death,
You broke your chains of slavery.
No country deserves to be free
If it is an indolent and servile slave,
If the call does not grow loud within it,
Tempered by a virile heroism.
But the brave and indomitable Quisqueya
Will always hold its head high,
For if it were a thousand times enslaved,
It would a thousand times regain freedom.
II
If it will be exposed to ruse and deceit
Unto contempt of a real imposer,
On to Las Carreras! Beler! ...it were places
Where the traces of glory are found.
Where on the top of the heroic bastion,
The word of the libarated became flesh,
Where the genius of Sánchez and Duarte
Taught to be free or to die.
And if an unattended leader the splendor
Of these glorious events could ignore,
One has seen in Capotillo in the war
The flag of fire wave.
And the fire that lets the proud lion
Of Castilla become stupefied,
Removes him from the glorious beaches
Where the crossed banner waves.
III
Compatriots, let us proudly
Show our face, from today prouder than ever;
Quisqueya may be destroyed
But a slave again, never!
It is a sanctuary of love that every character
Of the fatherland feels alive!
And it is his coat of arms, the right;
And it is his device: be free or die.
Freedom that still rises cool-bloodedly
The victory in her triumphal car.
And the clarion of war re-echoes
Proclaiming his immortal glory.
Freedom! That the echo's touch
While they're full of noble tension
Our fields of glory repeat
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!

Music stuff

2006-02-22T18:51:00.000-05:00

So here's a few things I'm taking from the Latino Loop emails of the last couple of weeks:

John Lennon covers from Jaguares and Afroreggae will be available to download on the Amnesty International website February 21st as part of the Make Some Noise series of Lennon covers by bands from around the globe. Jaguares does an en español take on “Give Me Some Truth”.

Finally. cool new music to get excited about - anyone who lists Kinky & nortec as an influence is likely to be on the right path..)
Barcelona’s (Catalunia) The Pinker Tones hit #1 on Emusic’s Top Download Chart in February for their U.S. debut “The Million Colour Revolution” ahead of Coldplay, Johnny Cash and Cat Power among others. The album also figured among the Top 10 on iTunes Latin Album Download chart. www.myspace.com/thepinkertones

Hell yeah. Shame on this jerk.

A speech by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before law students at Georgetown University this week turned into an act of civil disobedience. During his defense of the domestic spying program, students stood up and turned their back on Gonzales while holding a banner that quoted Benjamin Franklin stating “Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”

Coretta

2006-02-02T12:45:00.000-05:00

WOMEN!

If the soul of the nation Is to be saved,

I believe that you Must become its soul~

~ Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King Dies at 78: http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/coretta_scott_king

Rock 'n' Roll Revolución

2005-12-08T17:07:00.000-05:00

Here is the Article from the Boston Globe on the concerts we are putting on w/ the Zumix team in East Boston. We requested for the radio show & org name not to be mentioned - because at this point if the ratings get too high, the station would have to start paying fees - so we need to keep it low key for now.
Notheless is great press for the 'musical movement' we are attempting...
xoxo
RU
===========

Roc 'n rol revolución

From Eastie to JP, the sounds on the street are rocking, and they are in Spanish
By Christine MacDonald, Globe Correspondent November 27, 2005

Step inside the dimly lighted basement bar at the Kailua Hawaiian Restaurant in East Boston: Jeans-clad members of the neighborhood band La Chusma take the stage, wearing their electric guitars with attitude. Front man Juan Pedraza, in John Lennon glasses and a goatee, begins to work the room. The audience crowds the stage, singing along with every song though its members hail from a dozen Latin American countries. Striking the cool pose universal among rock fans, people wag their heads from side to side, keeping the beat. A few young men whip out cell phones and videotape the show. On this stage, there is no wall of horns and no snappy moves. Offstage, there is no dancing. Welcome to the transplanted world of Latin rock, appearing in a growing number of venues in Boston and environs. It's the sound of young Latin America, popular in the barrios of Buenos Aires, Lima, Santiago, Bogotá, and Mexico City. The music blends American and British rock influences with Latin American musical traditions. Lyrics run the gamut from love and loss to gritty urban realities like drug abuse and police brutality. In the US, with about a third of the country's 41 million Hispanics under 18, the Latin rock/pop genre accounted for nearly a third of an estimated $651 million in US Latin music sales last year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Its emergence in the Boston area is a sign of a change in immigration patterns, with growing numbers of young newcomers arriving not from their homelands' countryside, as did most of their predecessors, but from the cities. For the young immigrants hankering for the pop culture soundtrack of the Latin American cities they left behind, Boston now stands ready, its Latin cover bands performing songs originally recorded by Latin Rock mega-groups such as Mexico's Maná, Chile's Los Prisioneros, and Argentina's Soda Stereo. ''I am a South American," said Bryan Alvarado, a 21-year-old from Lima. ''I love to dance salsa, merengue, and cumbia. But rock is the music of protest, the music of the city." Newcomers from countries with vibrant Latin rock scenes are adding layers of complexity to the region's already diverse Hispanic population. Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Salvadorans remained Boston's largest Hispanic groups in 2000.

While those communities continued to grow in the 1990s, Mexicans and Colombians arrived at an even faster clip, according to Census data analyzed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. And previously untracked natives of Venezuela, Argentina, and Chile popped up in Boston Census counts for the first time in 2000. ''I think it's fascinating," said Edwin Argueta of the emerging Spanish rock scene. Argueta, 30 ,moved from El Salvador to the Boston area as a teenager. ''It's a different kind of a crowd. A lot of these folks who are immigrating here came from very urban scenarios. It's not what you saw in the late '80s and early '90s, which was mostly older folks from rural areas and with little education." Latin American rock dates back to the 1950s but entered the mainstream culture there in the 1980s and 1990s. Its rise in popularity down south -- and more recently in Boston -- has coincided with decades of rapid urbanization. Today Latin America is the world's most urban region, according to the World Bank. Compared to a world average of 49 percent, 77 percent of Latin America's population lived in cities and towns in 2003. Hector D. Fernandez, a Georgia State University professor and an expert on Latin rock, says the music is an urban middle class phenomenon that emerged from Mexico and Argentina and spread to other middle class urban centers around the region. While it was initially decried in some countries as an imperialist import, these days, he said, it is widely accepted as a commercially viable ''product" and a true Latin American musical form.

Medellin, Colombia, for instance, boasts a heavy metal scene. Mexico's Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del Quinto Patio (which roughly translates into Damned Tenement and the children of the fifth floor) uses mariachi trumpets to achieve a punk rock sound. While Spanish rock has many musical influences, groups often share a rebellious rock-and-roll attitude. The music has taken on particularly militant tones to protest authoritarian governments, human rights abuses, and discrimination. ''The politics empowers the rock scene mostly," Fernandez said, pointing to Argentina's recent economic crisis and political upheaval, which he said has breathed new life into that country's rock scene lately. ''As the political situation gets worse and worse, it fuels the music."

Voices against violence
Colombia's Aterciopelados renounced the violence of their country's long-running civil war in the song ''Quemarropa" (Point Blank). ''No more, no more shooting that machine gun/No more, no more, stop the shooting, where did all the cold blood come from, always tempting heaven," go the lyrics. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs' 1993 hit ''Matador" memorialized Chilean poet Victor Jara, who was killed after General Augusto Pinochet seized power in a coup in 1973 that deposed Socialist president Salvador Allende. The lyrics: ''My words are bullets, bullets of peace, bullets of justice/Mine is the voice that they silenced without reason, only because I think differently." The Cadillacs follow in the path of Argentine rocker Charly Garcia, a critic of his country's military junta that ''disappeared" tens of thousands of people during that country's so-called ''Dirty War" in the 1970s and 1980s. Mexico's El Tri sang about government corruption and police brutality decades before free elections swept from power the country's authoritarian ruling party.

While the country has now held its first democratic elections, Daniel Rivas, 25, from Hermosillo, a northwestern Mexico city of 712,000 people, says being a Mexican rocker is still a rebellious act. ''In Mexico, rock is subterranean music -- it's underground," he said. ''If police see you with tattoos or long hair in Mexico, they stop and hassle you. There's no place to play." La Chusma bass player Mariana Iranzi, 27, said the music was less of a political statement and more a rite of passage growing up in Buenos Aires. There, ''everyone has a little band. Rock bands mostly," the Berklee student said. La Chusma members reflect the diversity of the local Hispanic community. Lead singer and guitarist Juan Pedraza, 30, is a ''chilango," or Mexico City native, who says the guitar transformed him from a nerdy schoolboy with thick glasses into a long-haired rocker who never left home without his guitar. From middle school until he dropped out of college, he says he paid all his school fees by singing cover songs on Mexico City buses. Today, he teaches guitar at an Eastie after-school program.

Sounds of success
Drummer Brian Leyva, 24, another Mexico City native, lives in Randolph and works in construction. He says his former band ''Perros de Pavlov" (Pavlov's Dogs) had a brush with fame in the 1990s, once opening for Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. Andres Ponciano, 22, who plays first guitar, is a Guatemalan native who recently graduated from Berklee. At 19, the band's youngest member, Carlos Saavedra graduated from East Boston High School last year and attends the New England Conservatory of Music. He grew up in the Boston area with his Peruvian-born parents and discovered rock in middle school when he heard John Lennon sing ''Imagine" on the radio. ''I went out and bought the album. After that I went out bought all his records. Then I learned that Lennon had a little group called The Beatles, and went out and bought all the albums," Saavedra said. But when he discovered Soda Stereo and other groups that sang in his native language, it opened up a world more appealing than the largely white and homogeneous one presented on the tube. ''When you are small your imagination takes off with the ideas they sell you on TV," Saavedra said. ''Music took me in a whole other direction." So far, Saavedra's band has played only occasional bar concerts in Chelsea and East Boston, community festivals, and private parties. They also have a new home of sorts on Radio 1630 AM, an East Boston community radio station that began broadcasting last summer. Volunteers launched the nightly ''Zubterraneo" Spanish rock show in September. Besides the music, Zubterraneo's audience shares a sort of pan-Latin American television culture. The Eastie band got its name from a Mexican soap opera in reruns throughout Latin America. Band members said the show acquired a youth following in the '80s and '90s similar to that of ''The Brady Bunch" in this country, only it was set in a ''vecindad," or poor neighborhood. ''There was this one character that was always saying 'chusma, chusma,' " which roughly translates into ''the poorest of the poor," Leyva said. ''We all remember that character."

Music moves upscale
While the name is fitting for the East Boston band, with its largely working-class fans, the scene that unfolds once a month at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge is a more upscale affair. Those live concerts by local cover bands draw young Latin Americans seeking degrees at Harvard, MIT, BU and other area colleges, according to organizer Christian Hinojosa, who launched the concerts under the name ''Clandestino" (Clandestine) last year. ''There was no place to hear rock in Spanish. In Cambridge, the club owners weren't interested. They didn't think there was an audience," said said. But the first show was such a success the skepticism evaporated. ''The place was almost full," said Hinojosa, who celebrated Clandestino's first anniversary Sept. 23. Elena Balsa, 27, a UMass-Lowell graduate student from JP, was there, enjoying the rock she grew up listening to as a teenager in Merida, Venezuela, an Andean mountain city. Indeed, said Balsa, Latin rock here is largely a retro scene. Local cover bands cull their song lists from Latin rock's greatest hits from the 1980s and '90s, music fans like Gonzalo Scaramelli, 29, a cook from Lima, grew up with. ''Before the only option was salsa," said Scaramelli, now of JP, about the local Latin scene. ''But today the public is growing bigger and bigger" for Spanish rock. The reason is obvious to Juan Perez, 24, an East Boston warehouse worker, who arrived here from Colombia four years ago: ''This music is special because it's ours," said Perez, sipping a beer. Nearby, another young man raised his fist in the air, shouting: ''Que viva roc-n-rol!" And the crowd went wild in affirmation.

''Viva! Viva roc-n-rol!" Local Latin rock bands will next perform Dec. 9 at the Kailua Hawaiian restaurant, East Boston. For information, call 617-568-9777, ext. 16.
©Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Finally pictures - I admit to blog lazyness

2005-12-04T18:49:00.000-05:00

And finally - some images....

Pa o la y yo - during our last concert for the radio show in East Boston..

Teaching the teenagers class...

@ Liz's devouring Charo's lasagna yesterday.

With La Par t ner y el Dali - in DC last month.

Celebreting Elizabeth's birthday @ Chu Chi's last month.

NYC - 2 days ago.

W/ my girls at Satalla - after my show this week.

Breaking it down Tribal style with Lau ren Mi che lle @ the big Apple.

Paradise in Granby - Canada.

Performing Debka in Palestinian regalia with Ka rim.

With Eve in her lovely home / dance studio in Baltimore.

Gentrified Baltimore, MD.

@ Teatro w/ Na hir before a concert.

Taken during a Boston peace demo in Sept.

----------------------------------------

OXO
RU.

Una verdad con la que vivimos...

2005-11-03T17:07:00.000-05:00

This is a cartoon about a Dominican teenager from NYC named Desiree.
Isn't it true that we immigrants sorta live in limbo, not feeling like we really belong in either place.. ?
Here we're told we're foreigners, there we're told the same. You have a funny accent in both languages. You are told that you dress funny and eat funny stuff in both places. You hate and love things about both places. Your life, your family, your mind, your heart is split between the two places...

RU

Stuff Coming up

2005-10-24T13:40:00.000-04:00

Check it out:

Wednesday, October 26 Vandana Shiva @ MIT 7pm 77 Mass Ave Building 10-250
http://whereis.mit.edu
This woman is amazing - read about her at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva

Friday, October 28, 7:30pm Eyes on the Rainbow - Assata Shakur Movie @ Cultural Cafe, 76 Atherton St. http://www.girlscoalition.org/events/details.asp?id=278
Read about Assata here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assata_Shakur

Saturday, October 29, 11-4 Anti-war Rally Boston Common, www.oct29.org
Saturday, October 29, 5-7pm Meeting, Viva la Cultura Program - Sociedad Latina Office, Boston
Saturday, October 29, 8pm Ibdaa Show, Palestinian Youth Dancers, 5 Park Street
Saturday, October 29, 10pm-2am Dance - Party - Soul Revival, http://www.reviveyoursoul.com/

Sunday, October 30, 2:30pm Cultural Café, poetry, Black Women, Black Workers, 76 Atherton St.
http://www.girlscoalition.org/events/details.asp?id=278

Close the School of the Americas!
Read about it on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_the_Americas

November, 19-20 Close the SOA, Fort Benning Georgia, http://www.soaw.org

RU

DC / Baltimore - Ramble from 31st fl.

2005-10-17T17:21:00.000-04:00

En Spanglish - edicion regular.

Just spent the weekend con la pa rt ner, tranqui. Fui de compras y consegui cosas muy chulas y me gaste el lomo de plata que por supuesto, no debo. Mi oficina va a quedar bonita con un cuadro de Frida y otro del Che (el ultimo, un calendario).

Nos dimos una discusion super interesante anoche sobre el perfil negativo promovido por Hollywood por mas de 100 anios - de los Arabes en el cinema. El senior speaker (Jack Sheehan, author of "Reel Bad Arabs") tambien tuvo un par de buenas frases, como "entertainement is an effective way to disseminate propaganda"... donde propagandas, son mentiras. No miren tantas peliculas de accion chicos. Ya saben.

Ahora estoy laburando en Baltimore. Yo esperaba campo, y me salio ciudad grande y bonita, asi que estoy media startled...
Igual esta conferencia 'ta 'pal caraj...
Dias preciosos perdidos en un salon de conferencia, demasiado frio para mi gusto, escuchando 'pleplas'. Yo, mientras - calculo cuanto me pagan por escuchar cada minuto... cada palabra, y hoy - me lo banco.

Aqui tengo unas foticos que recibi de mi comay. Es la ahijada en el cumple. Tan grande y tan contenta... :-D

Mientras estoy aca no hay baile... boooooo.

Se ve super lindo desde mi ventana en el 31st fl del Mariott frente al harbor... como dijo alguien - "Gentrification makes for nice views". Tiene razon. Son muy veri nice.

No mas por ahora.

RU

Interesantes

2005-10-07T17:23:00.000-04:00

Musicólogos y demás aficcionados:

Hace mucho que no escucho nada nuevo que me vuele la cabeza.
La G l ennys y yo hemos coincidido en el mismo problema. Pero aqui, tengo unas sugerencias de cosas (mas o menos) nuevas e interesantes...

Lo más bulloso que ha pasado este último mes...
Nortec salió con disco 2 (volúmen 3?)

S a l vi - van a tocar el Pepsi en BA...

Tijuana Sessions vol. 3
New record release
http://www.norteccollective.com/

=========

Por fin. Lo sé...
Carol parece una diosa en la portada.
Ya lo tengo y está muy bueno.
Lleno de sutilezas.
Y hay fiesta.

More Shine
Si*Sé
Record Release Party
Saturday October 8th
Place: Canal Room 285 West Broadway (off Canal Street)
Doors: 7PM
Show: 8:30PM
CD release was on October 4th.

=========

Para las Be li sas, los Gua ri os, las Or te gas y las Pa tty Ca kes del mundo (xoxoxo para Uds.)

Aparte del nuevo disco que todavía no tengo, 1m^2 -
en el sitio de Jarabe de Palo (que por cierto está de pinga - http://www.jarabedepalo.com/)
aparecen tres futuras fechas para conciertos en el Caribe:
11 de Noviembre - Puerto Rico
12 & 13 de Noviembre - Santo Domingo - República Dominicana - por confirmar.

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Que lindo que es Viernes. Ahora... a bailar Flamenco.

Murder last Friday - Filiberto Ojeda Rios

2005-09-27T14:05:00.000-04:00

For those of you that didn't hear what happened... because is not in the mainstream news...
They shot him and waited enough time to let him bleed to death before going in.
Read on.

RU

(modified from Democracy now)
FBI Shoots Dead Puerto Rican Nationalist Leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios

For the past four decades Filiberto Ojeda Rios had been a leading figure in the fight for Puerto Rican independence and against U.S. colonial rule.
He was wanted by the FBI for his role in a 1983 bank heist.

Longtime Puerto Rican nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios has been killed by the FBI.
The shooting occurred Friday after FBI agents surrounded a house where he was staying. According to an autopsy, Rios bleed to death after being hit with a single bullet. Officials didn’t enter his home until Saturday, many hours after he was shot.

The FBI claimed the 72-year-old Ojeda Rios fired first but independence activists accused the FBI of assassinating him.
For the past four decades Ojeda Rios had been a leading figure in the fight for Puerto Rican independence and against U.S. colonial rule.

In 1967 he founded and led the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement. He was later a key organizer with the FALN, the Armed Forces of National Liberation and then the Boricua Popular Army, also known as the Los Macheteros.
The FBI considered Ojeda Rios a wanted fugitive because of his ties to a $7 million bank robbery in 1983 in Connecticut. He had been living underground for 15 years.

On Friday night, 500 supporters of independence protested the shooting by blocking one of the main roads in San Juan.
In New York, a protest took place yesterday at 26 Federal Plaza.

Dance fundraiser for Katrina victims

2005-09-27T13:55:00.000-04:00

Hello!!
An amazing group of women have put this event together here in beantowne.
Details on flyer below.
RU

US out of Iraq NOW

2005-09-26T18:52:00.000-04:00

From Democracy Now

Between 100,000 and 300,0000 people took to the streets of Washington D.C. on Saturday (September 23rd 2005) to protest the ongoing war and occupation of Iraq. It was the largest anti-war protest in the nation's capital since the invasion and the first in a decade that federal officials allowed to go past the White House.

Suheir Hammad read her poem “Of Refuge and Language” at the pre-march rally:

SUHEIR HAMMAD: I wrote this poem after Hurricane Katrina and the victims of the rescue effort. The rescue effort victims of Hurricane Katrina were viewed on television for all of us, and they were called "refugees." This is a poem for all of the refugees in the world.

"Of Refuge and Language"

I do not wishTo place words in living mouthsOr bury the dead dishonorably
I am not deaf to cries escaping shelters
That citizens are not refugees
Refugees are not Americans
I will not use languageOne way or anotherTo accommodate my comfort
I will not look away
All I know is this
No peoples ever choose to claim status of dispossessed
No peoples want pity above compassion
No enslaved peoples ever called themselves slaves
What do we pledge allegiance to?
A government that leaves its old
To die of thirst surrounded by water
Is a foreign government
People who are streaming
Illiterate into paperwork
Have long ago been abandoned
I think of coded language
And all that words carry on their backs
I think of how it is always the poor
Who are tagged and boxed with labels
Not of their own choosing
I think of my grandparents
And how some called them refugees
Others called them non-existent
They called themselves landless
Which means homeless
Before the hurricane
No tents were prepared for the fleeing
Because Americans do not live in tents
Tents are for Haiti for Bosnia for Rwanda
Refugees are the rest of the world
Those left to defend their human decency
Against conditions the rich keep their animals from
Those who have too many children
Those who always have open hands and empty bellies
Those whose numbers are massive
Those who seek refuge
From nature’s currents and man’s resources
Those who are forgotten in the mean times
Those who remember
Ahmad from Guinea makes my falafel sandwich and says
So this is your country
Yes Amadou this my country
And these my people
Evacuated as if criminal ,br> Rescued by neighbors
Shot by soldiers
Adamant they belong
The rest of the world can now see
What I have seen
Do not look away
The rest of the world lives here too

In America

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Gotta love Boondocks

2005-09-16T15:08:00.000-04:00

... and gotta love Kanye - how brilliant and courageous was that?!?

RU